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This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between August 1and August 31, 2021. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California.

Mercury passes behind the sun and then appears in the evening sky in the last week of August. By August 31, the sun sets at 7:20 p.m., PDT, and Mercury sets at 8:16 p.m., PDT. Never observe Mercury when the sun is in the sky, for the risk of damage to the eyes is great.

Venus is in the evening sky. On the 1^st, the sun sets at 7:54 p.m., PDT, and Venus sets at 9:34 p.m., PDT. On the 31^st, Venus sets at 9:02 p.m., PDT. Venus presents a small disk in a gibbous phase when viewed through a telescope. The planet slowly increases in size from 13 arcseconds to 15 arcseconds, while at the same time the gibbous phase slowly gets thinner.

Copper-red Mars continues to recede from earth and shrinks slowly. Mars is fading into the sunset. It is visible with difficulty early in the month. The planet is at magnitude +1.8 and low in the west.

Mars is only a small disk, and so no surface features will be visible, even with a telescope. On the 1^st, Mars sets at 8:59 p.m., PDT. On the 31^st, Mars sets at 7:52 p.m., PDT, 32 minutes after the sun sets.

Jupiter rises in the east at 8:52 p.m., PDT, on the 1^st and at 6:42 p.m., PDT, on the 31^st, so by the end of the month it will be visible in the evening sky as the sun sets. A telescope will reveal features on the disk and the four Galilean moons, which travel in a rough line east to west around Jupiter.

Saturn rises in the east at 7:52 p.m., PDT, on the 1^st and at 5:46 p.m., PDT, on the 31^st. The planet is well placed for observations in the evening sky. A telescope will reveal Saturn’s disk, its rings, and perhaps its brightest and largest moon, Titan.

New moon occurs on the 8^th, first quarter on the 15^th, full moon on the 22^nd, and last quarter on the 30^th.

The Perseid meteor shower peaks from the evening of the 11^th through the morning of the 12^th. The meteors appear to come from the constellation of Perseus and so are named after it. Some 50 to 75 meteors per hour may be visible from rural areas. The Perseids are usually faint, with an occasional bright meteor. The moon is 3.5 days past new moon and 13-percent illuminated, and so it will not interfere with observations.  The constellation of Perseus rises around 11:00 p.m., PDT, in the northeast, and will not be overhead until sunrise.

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