Last month, mankind celebrated the 45th anniversary of the first lunar landing. American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the lunar surface. Their mission was followed by five more successful lunar landings and Apollo 13 – an unplanned lunar swing-by which nearly ended in disaster.

Fifteen years after the Apollo 11 landing, the Astronomical Society of Malta was founded. It was 1984 and a merger took place between the Students’ Astronomical Circle and the Astronomical Association, both of which had been established in Malta in the late 1970s.

This month, early risers are in for a treat as on the morning of 18 August, the two brightest planets in the sky – Venus and Jupiter – come as close together as they have been since 2000.

You may still remember their apparition in the evening sky earlier this year, but as they rotate around the sun they are now ­visible in the morning sky as they have gone onto the ‘other side’ of the sun, as seen from the earth.

The two planets will look very bright just above the eastern horizon in the morning twilight. It is best if you try to find an unobstructed eastern horizon to view this rare event.

The two planets will remain close together in the sky during the last half of the month, being joined by the crescent moon on August 23, forming a triangle.

Readers are encouraged to try to photograph the Venus-Jupiter pairing and post their images on the society’s Facebook page.

Saturn and Mars are still visible in the evening sky, every night. They remain close to Spica (the brightest star in Virgo) and form a straight line as the month begins in this order, from left to right, with Mars being the brightest of all three. They will become less bright as time goes by as they go farther away and closer to the sun (as seen from the earth).

This month the Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak during the early hours of August 13. Unfortunately, a nearly-full moon will blot out the fainter meteors but several bright ones will still be visible.

The best viewing hours are from 2am till dawn, facing east-southeast. Meteors will also be visible for three or four nights on either side of the peak date as the earth cuts through the dense path of comet Swift-Tuttle.

Join the astronomical community in Malta

To mark the two aforementioned anniversaries, the Astronomical Society of Malta is launching two membership offers to encourage more people, especially youths, to join the local astronomical community.

With any new or renewed membership, an additional free year will be offered. Furthermore, everyone below 18 is being offered a free electronic membership. The two offers will run until September. For details visit www.maltastro.org.

Astronomical events this month

Alexei Pace is president of the Astronomical Society of Malta.