At the end of the last month, comet 17P/Holmes brightened almost million times, and instantly became new sky attraction for astronomers. How long will it stay visible is unknown, but try to find it as soon as you can.

This month you can only watch one planet in the evening, and that is Mars - the red planet. There is something else you can watch too: dwarf planet Ceres and two asteroids...

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This month we can observe planet Jupiter for the last time this year. As far as observing planets goes, at least those on which we can observe some features, we're left only with planet Mars.

Although, as we're surely entering autumn season, the nights are getting longer, and longer, clock change to standard (winter) time, will increase our observing time by an hour. Most of Europe and Asia will be influenced by this, but USA will do the clock change next month.

With clock change, observing time can start earlier. As if that isn't enough, near the end of the month, the sky is giving us one more meteor shower - Orionids.

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This month we are entering new season - autumn. Days will become much shorter and to the delight of amateur astronomers, nights will grow longer. Given that the evenings are still pretty warm, this is, for many amateurs, favorite time of year for backyard observing.

Planet wise, we are able to observe Jupiter for a few months now, but starting this month, Mars, the red planet, will start to emerge before midnight.

Also this month, there are two space missions planned. SELENE from Japan Space Agency, will explore the Moon, and the Dawn mission of NASA, will start it's journey toward asteroid belt. Both of these missions were planned to be launched two months ago, but because of found faults near launch time, or bad weather, or even political decisions, they were postponed for this month.

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The only planet we'll be able to observe this month will be Jupiter. Although it's bands are usually full of details, and most observers love to catch it's big red spot, this year Jupiter will skim so close to observers horizon that our atmosphere will wash away most of those features.

Of three space missions planned for this year, only one has been launched as planned. The successful one, NASA Phoenix started at the beginning of this month it's journey towards Mars north pole, where it will explore history of waters on Mars, try to find out if Mars soil is capable of supporting life, and represent the first weather station on one of the Mars poles.

Also this month you can watch one of the best known meteor showers - Perseids. Comfortable temperatures, and no moonlight ought to make this a nice show for us.

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Planets Saturn and Venus are with us for over a year, but in the next ten days or so, they'll be lost from the evening sky. Except for Jupiter and it's satellites, we won't be having any interesting planets this month. Jupiter will be on the celestial sphere all night, but closeness to horizon will not bode well for detecting details on it's surface. But if you're up to it, you can try to find Uranus, Neptun or Pluto, which are also up in the evening hours.

This month Earth will be at aphelion (farthest point from the Sun), and it's night side will be turned towards center of our galaxy - Milky Way. Thus we can observe many summer objects, among which most are nebulae and globular clusters.

Also we expect NASAs satellite Dawn to launch, which will start its journey toward asteroid belt and explore dwarf planet Ceres, and asteroid Vesta.

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