What’s up in the night sky: August 2025

Welcome to our night sky monthly feature, where we focus on easy and fun things to see in the night sky, mostly with just your eyes. This month: Super bright Venus and very bright Jupiter snuggle together in the pre-dawn east (closest on Aug. 12), and around the same time, the Perseids, one of the best meteor showers of the year, will be reaching its peak.

All month: Super bright Venus is in the predawn east. Very bright Jupiter is below it early in the month, very close to it on Aug. 12, and above it the rest of the month.

All month: Yellowish Saturn is rising in the mid-evening in the east. 

All month: Reddish Mars is in the evening west, getting lower as the weeks pass, becoming very hard to see by month’s end.

The second half of the month: Mercury is low in the east before sunrise.

Aug. 9: Full Moon

Aug. 12: In the pre-dawn east, super bright Venus will be within one degree of very bright Jupiter. For reference, one degree is approximately equivalent to two widths of the full Moon. These are the two brightest natural objects in the night sky besides the Moon, so this should be quite spectacular.

Aug. 12: The Moon is near yellowish Saturn, rising in the mid-evening, and high up before dawn.

Aug. 12/13: The Perseid meteor shower, usually one of the best meteor showers of the year, peaks the night of August 12/13, with increased activity several days before and after. An 85% full Moon will wash out some of the dimmer meteors. From a very dark site, typically there are 50 to 75 meteors per hour at the peak.

Aug. 19: Mercury, low in the pre-dawn east, is at greatest elongation, meaning it will be highest above the horizon for this viewing period, so the easiest time to see it. 

Aug. 19: The Moon is near very bright Jupiter

Aug. 20: The crescent Moon is near super-bright Venus in the predawn east. Very bright Jupiter is above them.

Aug. 21: The thin crescent Moon is near Mercury, very low in the pre-dawn east.

Aug. 23: New Moon