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The planetary highlights for August. The longer nights of August beckon with several peaks this month. Saturn and Neptune undergo their second consumption of the year, appearing together in a low-power telescope eyepiece. Telescopic observers also get two shadow transits of Titan across Saturn. Early risers enjoy a spectacular consumption of the two brightest planets in the sky, Venus and Jupiter, on August 12. That was actually this morning. Same day, the Perseid meteor shower peaks. I excerpt this from a Starway magazine page, August 25, page 28. And on with the planets. Mercury was stationary back on the TAT, neither appearing to move forward nor backward relative to the background stuff. Mercury will be at its greatest western elongation, about 19 degrees west of the Sun, often 19th. That will actually mean that it's leaving the Sun in the early morning out towards the east. Mercury is rising up for 55 a.m. this week. Look for Mercury visible about 40 bits before sunrise just above the eastern horizon after the first week of the month. So now is the time to get out there and see if you can spot Mercury. Like I said, it will be as high as it's going to get in just another five days there. No seven days, another week. So keep an eye for that. Mercury moves from the constellation of Cancer into Leo, shining at magnitude 0.7 on the 15th.