Mon Aug 3, 2026 CROSS-QUARTER DAY: LUGHNASADH – LAMAS
We’ve just passed the third cross-quarter day of the year, which divides the summer season into two halves. The old name for this time was Lughnasadh, commemorating the marriage of the Celtic sun god Lugh to Danu the earth goddess, assuring that the crops would grow. Their children became the Tuatha de Danaan, the fairy folk of Ireland. In Christian reckoning, this is the “Loaf Mass,” or “Lammas.” The loaves of bread baked at this time were consecrated as the first harvest food. This was a busy time, as there was a lot of farming to be done; as the days were much longer than the nights, it meant that the farmwork just kept going until everyone was exhausted. Lammas was a small break in this work, work, work period – a chance for everyone to bake some bread and give thanks for the respite.
Tue Aug 4, 2026 MARIA MITCHELL
Maria Mitchell was born on August 1st, 1818. As a young girl she helped her father in his observatory on Nantucket Island. In 1847 she set up a telescope on her parent’s housetop and discovered a comet. The next year she became the first woman member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also served as professor of astronomy at Vassar College from 1865 until a year before her death in 1889. She contributed to the American Nautical Almanac, observed sunspots and solar eclipses, plus the planets and the moon. A crater on the moon is named for her. Maria Mitchell said, “We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but is somewhat beauty and poetry.” But she also asked of her students, "Did you learn that from a book or did you observe it yourself?"
Wed Aug 5, 2026 QUASAR DISCOVERY
On August 5, 1962, the first quasar was discovered. It has the unromantic designation, 3C273, the 273rd object in the third Cambridge catalog of radio sources. Quasi-stellar radio sources, or quasars, are so faint they can only be seen by powerful telescopes. They’re dim because they’re really far away! 3C273 actually puts out more energy than the combined light of the hundreds of billions of stars of our entire Milky Way, and this from an object only the size of our solar system! We think quasars are the hearts of galaxies that formed when the universe was young; these powerful light sources no longer exist. 3C273 is in our southwestern sky this evening, not too far from the bright star Spica in the constellation Virgo, (but several billion light years farther out of course.)
Thur Aug 6, 2026 ARCTURUS
Today’s Skywatch was written by planetarium assistant, Vela De la Mare. The planet Venus will be setting soon after the sun tonight, leaving space for another shining object in the west. Arcturus, the 4th brightest star in our night sky, lights the evening with a beautiful orange glow. It’s so bright that it can even be seen during the daytime, with a telescope and careful positioning. Jean-Baptiste Morin was the first person to observe it this way, way back in 1635. When it comes to Arcturus, we can even speculate who the last person to observe it will be, since it’s just travelling by our home – and relatively quickly. It’s speculated to have come from outside the disc of our galaxy, and right now is the closet to Earth it’ll ever be during its cosmic trip. Once it reaches the border of the constellation Vela, it’ll vanish from our sight, some 150,000 years from now.
Fri Aug 7, 2026 GALILEO’S FIRST TELESCOPE
On August 8th, 1609, members of the Venetian senate climbed to the top of the tower of St. Mark’s Cathedral for a demonstration of Galileo’s first telescope. The senators viewed ships far out at sea, ships that couldn’t be seen by the naked eye for another two hours. What a marvelous invention! Galileo’s salary at the University of Padua was immediately doubled. Now if you were to buy today the cheapest, crummiest telescope you could find, it would still be better than that first one. Galileo did not invent the telescope; but after hearing reports of its invention made one of his own. It was what he did with the telescope that made the difference. Instead of looking at ships out at sea, he turned the telescope skyward, and wrote about the moon, the planets and the stars - all the marvelous things in the heavens.
