{"id":578561,"date":"2026-08-01T08:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/578561\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T08:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:43:09","slug":"the-sky-today-on-saturday-august-1-open-cluster-ngc-6709","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/578561\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on\u00a0Saturday, August 1: Open cluster NGC 6709"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tThis rich grouping of young suns shines brightly in Aquila the Eagle, ripe for observing just after sunset and before moonrise.\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n

July 31: Mercury brightening<\/a><\/p>\n

With the Moon rising later each night as it wanes, there\u2019s a slightly longer dark window tonight for deep-sky observing. Let\u2019s use it to track down NGC 6709, a lovely open cluster in the constellation Aquila the Eagle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By 9:30 P.M. local daylight time, twilight should have faded significantly. Look high in the east to spot the Summer Triangle, bounded by the three bright stars Deneb, Vega, and Altair. The last star is the alpha star of Aquila, and lies to the lower right of the other two points in the triangle. From this star, near Aquila\u2019s northern border, we need to move to the upper right, toward Aquila\u2019s western border, where it meets Ophiuchus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NGC 6709 is located just under 5\u00b0 southwest of the 3rd-magnitude star Zeta (\u03b6) Aquilae. It\u2019s a rich cluster of young suns spanning some 13\u2019 and shines at magnitude 6.7 \u2014 easy to pick up in a small scope. You\u2019ll spot several dozen stars in a 4-inch scope, and 100 or more stars in larger amateur scopes of 12 inches or more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sunrise: 5:59 A.M.
Sunset: 8:13 P.M.
Moonrise: 9:47 P.M.
Moonset: 8:58 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (88%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.<\/p>\n

Mercury reaches its greatest western elongation at 4 A.M. EDT on August 2, standing 19\u00b0 from the Sun. The tiny planet reaches an altitude of almost 5\u00b0 above the eastern horizon an hour before sunrise, glowing at magnitude 0.2. It\u2019s the brightest object in Gemini, sitting to the right of the Twins\u2019 heads, marked by the stars Castor and Pollux. Mercury is about 9\u00b0 to the right of the lower star, Pollux. Over to the far right of Mercury is the familiar hourglass shape of Orion the Hunter, his three-star belt standing vertically in the sky just above the horizon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AMercury glows brightly above the eastern horizon an hour before sunrise on August 2, the day the tiny planet reaches its greatest western elongation from the Sun. It is now in Gemini, near the Twins\u2019 brightest stars. Also visible is Mars, higher in the sky in Taurus, and the figure of Orion to the right of Mercury. Credit: Stellarium<\/p>\n

Through a telescope, Mercury\u2019s disk stretches 8\u201d across. It shows off a crescent phase that is 39% lit; you may be able to spot the phase visually if you\u2019ve got good seeing and steady air near the horizon. Follow the planet as long as you can in the brightening sky, but make sure to put away any optics well ahead of sunrise from your location, which may differ from the time given below.<\/p>\n

Alison Klesman\u00a0is senior editor of\u00a0Astronomy\u00a0magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has studied a variety of topics, from minor planets to supermassive black holes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List This rich grouping of young suns shines brightly in Aquila the Eagle, ripe for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,7882,82,44123],"class_list":["post-578561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-tonight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}