The night sky in August 2027
Moon phases, meteor showers, planets and the best nights to look up from the UK in August 2027. Times are UK clock time (BST) for central England.
Best nights to watch
- Perseids peak, nights of 12–13 and 13–14 August: Good. The Moon is 84 per cent lit and sets at 01:13.
- Moon-free dark skies on the nights from 1 to 11 August: the best nights this month for faint shooting stars, the Milky Way and deep-sky objects.
- Moon-free dark skies on the nights from 28 to 31 August: the best nights this month for faint shooting stars, the Milky Way and deep-sky objects.
- Total eclipse of the Sun (partial from the UK), Monday 2 August: visible from the UK.
The Moon
Each day shows the Moon's shape in the evening. Shaded days start the best Moon-free dark nights.
Meteor showers
Perseids
Good from the UKPeak: nights of 12–13 and 13–14 August (maximum expected around 09:00 BST on Fri 13 Aug, in daylight in the UK, so both nights are worth watching). Zenithal hourly rate: about 100 (what one observer would see in an hour under a perfect sky with the radiant overhead; expect fewer). Radiant: Perseus. Parent: Comet 109P/Swift–Tuttle.
The Moon is 84 per cent lit and sets at 01:13. The best watching is from about 01:20 to 04:20, when the sky is dark, the radiant is well up and the Moon is out of the way.
Smaller showers peaking this month: Iota Aquariids (Southern branch around 4–5 August; Northern branch around 20 August, a few an hour at best); Eta Eridanids (around 7 August, a few an hour at best); Northern Delta Aquariids (around 8–12 August, a few an hour at best); Kappa Cygnids (around 13–17 August, a few an hour at best); Aurigids (around 31 August to 1 September, a few an hour at best).
Also active: Southern Delta Aquariids (peak around 30–31 July); Alpha Capricornids (peak around 30 July).
On any dark night you can also see a few sporadic meteors an hour, which belong to no shower. Rates are usually higher after midnight, when your side of Earth faces the direction it is travelling.
Planets
For the middle of the month. Magnitude measures brightness: the lower the number, the brighter, and anything brighter than about 2 is easy to see from a town.
- Mercury
- Mercury is too close to the Sun to see this month.
- Venus
- Venus is too close to the Sun to see this month.
- Mars
- Mars is too close to the Sun to see this month.
- Jupiter
- Jupiter is too close to the Sun to see this month.
- Saturn
- Comes into view in the east at about 23:15 and stays up for the rest of the night, highest in the south as dawn breaks. Brightness: magnitude 0.8.
Dates for your diary
- Monday 2 August: Total eclipse of the Sun (partial from the UK). Totality, lasting over six minutes at its longest, crosses southern Spain, North Africa and Egypt. From the UK it is a partial eclipse in the morning, at its greatest at about 10:00 BST, with roughly 40 per cent of the Sun's face covered in southern England and less further north, about a quarter in central Scotland. Never look at the Sun directly or through binoculars or a telescope: use proper eclipse glasses or project the image onto card.
- Tuesday 17 August: Penumbral eclipse of the Moon. A slight penumbral eclipse that begins only as the Moon sets in the UK morning twilight, and is not usefully visible from the UK.
Find a safe spot away from street lights, wrap up warmly and lie back so you can see a wide sweep of sky. Give your eyes 20 minutes to adjust and keep phone screens dim. No telescope is needed for meteors. Children should always watch with an adult. Never look at the Sun.
Read about every meteor shower, what a radiant and the zenithal hourly rate mean, and how moonlight hides faint meteors. Children can start with how to watch for shooting stars.