One Night on Pluto (Photo credit: lacomj)
Three different colored night-sky objects are visible in the west-southwest at dusk: Saturn, Mars, and Spica.
Mars passes between Spica and Saturn low in the west-southwestern sky at dusk. In order to see them, you must have a nice flat view to that direction. Their various colors will be quite striking since they are so close together: Yellow Saturn, red Mars, and white Spica.
At the beginning of the month, Saturn is north-northwest of Spica, and the pair remain fairly unchanged relative to each other throughout the month.
Mars however, will progress more quickly from the group. At the beginning of the month, it is west of Saturn and Spica, then passes between them, so on the evenings of August 13th and 14th, Saturn, Mars, and Spica will be in a nearly straight line.
Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto are visible this month with a telescope, but you will need a chart to locate them. Neptune is in Aquarius, Uranus is in Cetus, and Pluto is in Sagittarius.
For the second half – which will be discussed here later – the scene will be quite different!
Till then – keep looking up!
