November 2024
August 2025
[2025] August
The Eighth Month
August Night Watch Directly overhead you can see the “Summer Triangle:” Vega (blueish white) in Lyre, Altair (yellow-white) in Eagle, and Deneb (white) in Swan. Vega use to be called Vulture. An ancient connotation called these constellations the Stymphalian Flock, monster birds that prowled the woods of Greece and fed on the flesh of humans. Hercules, in his sixth labor, killed the flock, and they now reside perennially in the sky.
August 1 is known as Lammas Day, the midpoint between summer solstice and the Fall Equinox. In more temperate climes this is usually the beginning of the harvest.
Mars can be seen in the twilight on the 1st, but will sink lower through the month. On the 26th it hovers near the crescent moon. A beautiful conjunction from the 11th to the 13th unfolds with Venus and Jupiter together low in the East. Early morning on the 20th, the crescent moon forms a triangle with the two planets. The Perseid meteor showers peak August 11-13 in the predawn NE. Normally one of the flashier meteor showers, it will likely be drowned out this year by the light of the recent full moon.
July Moon Signs
First Quarter 1st Day
Full Moon 9TH Day
(Short Planting Moon-O’Odham)
Last Quarter 16th Day
New Moon 23rd Day
First Quarter 31st Day
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Best Time To:
Bake: August 19,20
Brew: August 1,2,28,29
Begin diet to lose weight: August 12,16
Plant aboveground crops: August 1,2,28,29
Plant belowground crops: August 19,20
Best Fishing Days (moon between new and full):August 1-9, 23-31.
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August has 30 days.
August is a time of growing up, of forgotten forever’s, full of the sweetest intent.”
– Meka Boyle
August Weather
"Feel the heat,and use it to forge new beginnings."-Unknown​
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TUCSON WEATHER AVERAGES FOR AUGUST
Record High 112 (8/1/1993)
Record Low 73 (8/27/1951)
Record Daily Precipitation 2.88” (8/1/1935)
August Flora and Fauna
August and September are prime butterfly months from the desert to the forests. Snouts, monarchs and painted ladies are common. August is also prime time for gnats, chiggers, and mosquitos pestering all mammal species, if that is any consolation.
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Blooming flowers include telegraph plants (Hertotheca subaxillaris), summer poppies (Kallstoemia gradifolia), barrel cactus (Ferocactus spp.) trailing four-o-clock(Allionia incarnata), buffalo gourds (Curcurbita foetidissima), devil’s claw (Proboscidea spp.), datura (Datura wrightii), and ground cherries (Solanunm elaeagnofolium).
Desert hackberries are fruiting to the delight of butterflies and birds. August is one of the best months for hummingbirds, as many species begin flying from Northern breeding grounds to southern wintering areas.
Notable August Dates:
August 8, 1919: Birthday of Samuel Pearson Goddard Jr., 12th governor of Arizona, serving from 1965 until 1967. He was a lawyer and developer in Tucson prior to being Governor.
August 10, 1645: Birthday of Eusebio Francisco Kino a Jesuit, missionary, geographer, explorer, cartographer and astronomer born in the Territory of the Bishopric of Trent, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. For the last 24 years of his life he worked in the region then known as the Pimería Alta, modern-day Sonora in Mexico and southern Arizona in the United States (d. 1711).
August 14, 1851: Birthday of John Henry "Doc" Holliday, an American gambler, gunfighter, and dentist, and a good friend of Wyatt Earp. He is best known for his role in the events leading up to and following the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (d. 1887).
August 20, 1775: Hugo O'Conor, the founding father of the city of Tucson, Arizona authorized the construction of a military fort in that location, Presidio San Agustín del Tucsón.
August 23, 1931; Birthday of Barbara Eden, American film, stage, and television actress, and singer, best known for her starring role of "Jeannie" in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie. Raised in Tucson.
August 24, 1930: Birthday of Roger McCluskey, an American race car driver raised in Tucson (d. 1993).
August 29, `1936: Birthday of John McCain, American war hero and Republican politician (Rep-Arizona, 1983-2018, Presidential nominee 2008), born in Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone (d. 2018).
August 29, 1955: Birthday of John Michael Candrea, head softball coach at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. He was the head coach of the United States women's national softball team in 2004, when Team USA won a gold medal, and in 2008, bringing home silver.