Monthly Archives: August 2026

More August 2026 Astro Events!

19 Wednesday Aug 2026

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1.This evening (8-19), NCA trustee Zack Gleiberman is giving a talk at Rhizome DC on astronomy in DC. Admission is free. The talk will start at 7 pm. 

2. This Saturday (8-22), NCA members will help the DC Dark Sky International staff a table at the National Book Festival, which will be held from 9 am to 8 pm at the Walter Washington Convention Center.

3. This Sunday (8-23) National Capital Astronomers will have its required annual board meeting to plan events, examine the budget, and so on. All officers and committee heads are expected, and any member of NCA is welcome, but there will be no public lecture or slide show. The physical location is my house, 1316 Randolph St NE, WDC 20017, starting at 3 pm, with light refreshments, or you can attend remotely at https://umd.zoom.us/j/95619565617?pwd=uqwxzZ39zgVfgOypmcp8cy6xFaCcRb.1

4. Next Wednesday (8-26), some NCA members will bring telescopes to another overnight event at the DC Department of Parks and Recreation program at Camp Riverview, MD. The camp (free; enrollment by lottery) is very close to Point Lookout, MD., which is a pretty long drive from DC. This event will be for senior citizens.

5. On the night of Thursday/Friday, August 26/27, the Earth’s shadow will cover almost all (96%) of the Moon. For us in the DMV region, the partial phase will begin at 10:33 pm, maximum eclipse will happen at 12:12 am (ie after midnight), and the partial phase will end at 1:51 am. No particular optics are required, and there is no chance of actual danger from viewing the event with either a camera, a telescope, binoculars, or your unaided vision.

6. The next day, August 27, the Astronomy@250 conference of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (now known as the Astro Society) begins with a public panel on Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, who as you probably know was the first chief of science at NASA, shepherded the Hubble Space Telescope into eing, and was a member and officer of NCA for many years. The link to join this session is www.youtube.com/@astrosocietydotorg

7. Saturday, August 29 is the deadline for any articles or photos you would like to include in the September 2026 Star Dust newsletter.

8. On Sunday, August 30, around 8 AM, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral on a Falcon Heavy rocket. It is expected to revolutionize astrophysics with its unprecedented wide-field infrared observations. Does anybody want to hold a watch party for the event?

August 20026: Eclipses, Meteor Shower, ATMing, and NGRST Space Telescope Liftoff!

08 Saturday Aug 2026

Posted by in astronomy, astrophysics, Optics, Safety, Telescope Making

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August 2026 is a very busy astronomical month!

1. Venus is VERY bright in the western sky at sunset right now, and it’s only half lit up! Any telescope or binocular will show this.

2. On August 12 we in the northeastern part of North America will get to witness a partial eclipse of the sun with safe solar telescopes or straw hats or colanders. The maximum bite will taken from sun around 2 pm EDT. Some parts of Europe and Africa will get a total eclipse, but for Washington DC only about 4% of the sun will be covered, so it won’t be noticeable without help. DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN!!!

3. Later on that very same night, especially after midnight, will be the annual Perseid meteor shower! The moon will not interfere at all! (see #2) Best to get to a big open field away from city lights. Wear insect repellent, bring something comfortable to lie down on, turn your phone off completely, and invite a few friends. Bring snacks and drinks, if you like, and pray for clear skies. Leave any telescope or other optics at home unless you already know how to take wide-field time-lapse photos. Make sure you cover or turn off your camera’s display or your eyes won’t be able to adjust to the night sky. I bet that a lot of people will end up at Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park if it’s clear.

4. On the night August 27, everybody in the Americas will get to see a nearly-full (96%) lunar eclipse! You can view this event by going outside and looking up, from anywhere. A time-lapse photo will work well here as well.

5. At about 7:45 AM, EDT on August 30, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is scheduled to take off from Cape Canaveral. Ahead of schedule and under budget! This telescope will be a really big deal. My best wishes (which are worth exactly nothing) for a successful operation!

6. The Northern Virginia Astronomy Club (NOVAC) is having their monthly meeting tomorrow afternoon (8/9/26) regarding gamma- and x-ray astronomy, which I was lucky enough to work on a bit as a summer teacher intern 30 years ago at the Naval Research Lab. Go to NOVAC.com to find details for logging on or attending in person.

7. NOVAC is also organizing the Almost Heaven Star Party at the Spruce Knob Mountain Institute next weekend. That’s a great gathering at a very dark site with amazing skies, high-quality original talks and great West Virginia nature walks and so on. Unfortunately, Spruce Knob often suffers from amazing amounts of dew even on clear nights. It’s probably sold out. You can try again next year.

8. Thursday-Sunday, August 13-16, will be the annual Stellafane telescope making convention, held near Springfield, Vermont. It’s been going on for over a century. If you go, you can expect quite a crowd. You can hear lots of fascinating talks about telescope-making during the day, and look through a variety of telescopes at night. This location is where Russell Porter in 1920 recruited a dozen or so factory workers in the town and showed them how to make their own, excellent telescopes all by hand.