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August 2026 Night Sky

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The August 2026 night sky will present a host of events for your viewing pleasure.

🔭Month-Long Event

Early risers can catch the planet parade throughout the month, although a telescope or other device will be needed to view all the visible planets. This occurs in the pre-dawn hours.

📆Events by Date

August 2 – An opportunity to catch the smallest planet in our solar system as it enters its greatest western elongation. Due to its size and closeness to the sun, Mercury is often difficult to spot. 

August 7 –  The Lunar Occulation of Pleiades. This one requires staying up late to witness, as it will occur after midnight for much of the U.S.

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Scholarships for Younger Students – Part #2

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With the high cost of college attendance, it’s imperative that students and their families start saving early. This includes applying for scholarships long before junior or senior year of high school.

Yes, you read that correctly. There are many college scholarships for younger students. The earlier version of this post details the many benefits of apply early to build a solid college fund.

Be Sure Criteria is Met

➡️Carefully read the eligibility requirements before starting an application.
➡️Don’t apply unless minimum requirements are met.
➡️Some scholarships are renewable, while others are one and done. Be sure to understand the details of each scholarship before you apply.
➡️Adjust future monetary needs accordingly.

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The Night Sky 2026 Edition

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Unplug – Reconnect to the Night Sky

The Night Sky 2026 Edition

Night sky watching serves as a powerful, low-cost antidote to today’s tech-saturated world, offering profound educational and economic benefits. It forces a shift away from dopamine-driven screens, requiring the development of deep, screen-free observational skills. Instead of relying algorithms, stargazers train their eyes to adapt to darkness, recognize subtle visual patterns, and track slow, real-time celestial changes.

This open-air laboratory is entirely free from subscription models, targeted ads, and expensive hardware upgrades. By trading digital notifications for the quiet focus of the cosmos, sky watching provides a high-value intellectual pursuit that costs absolutely nothing and reconnects us with the natural world.

BONUS

Origin of  Full Moon Names (from Partnership with Native Americans)

The “Blue Moon” is not on the standard list of moon names due to its rarity.

July 2026 

Night Sky July 2026

Click to watch on YouTube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     (Use the date links to see detailed descriptions.)        

July 14: – Can you spot the Milky Way?

The night of the new moon offers a great opportunity to spot the Milky Way.

July 17: Crescent moon and Venus

July 18:  Southern Delta Aquarids begin

June 2026 

Night Sky June 2026

Overview of events from NASA Jet Propoulsion Laboratory YouTube Channel

There’s plenty to see in the June 2026 night sky, including planetary conjunctions and alignments to the Strawberry moon, summer soltice, and the peak of the Bootid meteor shower.

From National Geographic 

From Space.com

From EarthSky

From Astronomy Magazine

May 2026

May 1 – Full “Flower” moon. This one is a trickster because the peak of the full moon will occur during daylight hours at 1:23 PM EDT. Children can witness the early stages as they leave for school.

May 4 – Moon reaches apogee (farthest from earth’s center).

May 5-6 – Eta Aquarids meteor shower reaches its peak.

May 13-15 – Crescent moon near Saturn and Mars.

May 16 – New moon.

May 31 – Another full moon – this one’s a Blue Moon.

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