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The best week for stargazing all year: this week on The Dark Sky

This will be one of the best weeks for stargazing all year and here’s why:

Every year in August, the thickest part of the Milky Way is visible over the southwest horizon, and because the Moon is at waxing crescent phase this week, it will sweep through the sky between sunset and Milky Way without diminishing the light of the stars.

And all five planets that are visible to the naked eye are also in the evening sky, in the west after sunset, with the crescent Moon cascading past them.

AND! Every night this week we move closer and closer to the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower.

So that’s best views of the Milky Way; all five naked eye planets with the Moon; and stars falling overhead. If the northern lights kick up as predicted, then it doesn’t get much better.

The earlier in the week you get out to watch, the better, because the Moon is growing larger and getting brighter, and you want to see the sky in all its glory before Moon gets to its too bright.

In the Chinese Calendar system, this week is the most romantic of the year,and is storied about in the tale “The Weaving Princess and the Cowherd”. This tale has to do with the stars Vega and Altair. You can see these two early every night this week, on opposite sides of the Milky Way. As the weaving princess and the cowherd, they are banished to opposite sides of the river by the Sky King because, when they fell in love, they stopped taking care of their chores, and the result was chaos.

But once every year, on the seventh night of the seventh moon, the mighty swan spreads her wings and creates a bridge across the Milky Way River of stars, so the lovers may cross for a-once-every-year evening of bliss.

The seventh night of the seventh moon is August 9th this year, and it’s said that if you go out and do your chores or some handwork by the light of the Moon on this night, then you’ll have a dream about your true love!