Dark Sky News

The Summer Triangle is an astronomical asterism in the northern hemisphere. Its defining vertices form a large overhead triangle and are Altair, Deneb, and Vega, each the brightest star of its constellation (Aquila, Cygnus, and Lyra, respectively).  Although it may look like a simple flat asterism, it’s really a dramatic three-dimensional arrangement: Vega is about 25 light-years away, Altair about 17, while Deneb is roughly a hundred times farther away—yet Deneb still appears nearly as bright because it is an extraordinarily luminous supergiant.

The triangle conveniently frames one of the richest regions of the northern Milky Way. The dark “Great Rift” runs through it, while Cygnus contains dense star fields, emission nebulae, and strong radio and X-ray sources.

NASA Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory) rover surpasses another full year of operations on Mars surface today; launched Nov 26, 2011 – landed Aug 5, 2012 (Pacific Daylight Time).

Well, you’d have to travel to one of the following places to see it: Arctic Ocean off the Northern coast of Russia, Greenland, Iceland, Spain or the middle of the Atlantic Ocean! A partial eclipse will be visible in Alaska, Canada, western Africa, and the northern United States. Boston will reach a maximum coverage of about 16% to 22% at approximately 1:55 PM to 2:04 PM EDT. Detailed tracking data and local animations are available here on Time and Date.

The Perseids is one of the best meteor showers to observe, producing up to 60 meteors per hour at its peak. It is produced by comet Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862. The Perseids are famous for producing a large number of bright meteors. The shower runs annually from July 17 to August 24. It peaks this year on the night of August 12 and the morning of August 13. There will be no moonlight to interfere with the show so be prepared for what could be an impressive display! Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Perseus, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

This full moon was known by early Native American tribes as the Sturgeon Moon because the large sturgeon fish of the Great Lakes and other major lakes were more easily caught at this time of year. 

With a total solar eclipse having just passed, it’s no surprise we’ve got a partial lunar eclipse! A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through the Earth’s partial shadow, or penumbra, and only a portion of it passes through the darkest shadow, or umbra. During this type of eclipse a part of the Moon darkens as it moves through the Earth’s shadow. This partial eclipse will be visible throughout most of North America, Mexico, Central America, South America, the Atlantic Ocean, and most of Europe and Africa. 

The partial lunar eclipse in Boston will take place on August 27–28, 2026, with key phases including the partial eclipse beginning at 10:33 PM, maximum eclipse at 12:12 AM, and the partial eclipse ending at 1:51 AM. Maximum eclipse will reach 0.93 magnitude when the moon will be deepest in the shadow.

Fun fact: the magnitude of a lunar eclipse is the fraction of the Moon’s diameter covered by Earth’s shadow. 

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is scheduled to lift off on August 30, 2026, at 7:26 a.m. EDT aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, heading out to the Sun-Earth L2 orbital point to study dark energy and exoplanets! Wish it luck!