With the return of Saturn, it's great to have a bright planet back in the evening sky. Look for it low in the southeastern sky around 11:30 p.m. local time as August opens. By month's end, the Ring King's up by 10 p.m. Meanwhile, at dawn, Venus closes in on Jupiter, leading up to their spectacular close conjunction on the morning of Aug. 12. Since the annual Perseid meteor shower peaks at nearly the same time, you can get up before dawn to catch a few meteors, then top off the morning with the paired planets.

The Perseid maximum occurs on the night of Aug. 12-13. Under moonless conditions, we might see 50-80 meteors per hour from a dark, rural sky. Unfortunately, the bright waning gibbous moon will compromise the show, reducing meteor totals by about half. But moonlight or not, we’ll stil

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