Astro Anniversaries

August

Day Year Event
1 Aug 1818 Maria Mitchell born. She became the first woman in the USA to work as a professional astronomer and astronomy professor.
3 Aug 1596 David Fabricius, working in what is now Germany, made the first recorded observation of a variable star - the star was Mira (α Ceti).
4 Aug 2007 The Phoenix Mars Lander was launched from Cape Canaveral, carrying science instruments to analyze soil samples of the Martian northern polar region.
5 Aug 1927 Leon Mestel born.  A British-Australian astronomer and astrophysicist. He was Emeritus Professor at the University of Sussex. His research interests were in the areas of star formation and structure, especially stellar magnetism and astrophysical magnetohydrodynamics. He was awarded both the Eddington Medal (1993) and the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (2002).
5 Aug 1937 Brian Marsden born.  A British astronomer who specialised in the fields of celestial mechanics and astrometry. Renowned for his expertise in calculating the orbits of solar system objects, he was Director of the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics from 1978 until his death in 2010 (Director Emeritus 2006-2010).
6 Aug 2012 Bernard Lovell died. A British physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980, and received a knighthood in 1961 for his contributions to the development of radio astronomy.
6 Aug 2012 The Mars rover Curiosity landed on the Red Planet as part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission.
8 Aug 1989 The European Space Agency (ESA) launched Hipparcos, the first space telescope devoted to the precise measurement of the positions of celestial objects.
9 Aug 1911 William Fowler born. A nuclear astrophysicist, Fowler led a team that, for the first time, showed the pathways by which stars build up the heavier elements in the universe. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1983.
11 Aug 1877 American astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Deimos - the smaller of Mars’ two tiny moons - at the US Naval Observatory.
12 Aug 1919 Margaret Burbidge born.  A British astronomer who contributed to the study of galaxies, quasars and the formation of the elements.  Burbidge became the first woman to use the largest telescope in the world at that time - the 200" Hale Telescope on Mount Palomar - for independent research.
14 Aug 1959 The US Explorer 6 satellite took the first (black & white) images of Earth from orbit.
17 Aug 1877 American astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Phobos - the larger of Mars’ two tiny moons - at the US Naval Observatory.
17 Aug 2017 The LIGO/Virgo collaboration both observed gravity waves coming from the same object.
18 Aug 1868 During a total eclipse of the sun, several observers used a spectroscope to examine the spectrum of the sun and find a bright unknown line, which pointed to a new element which was later named Helium after the Greek 'helios' for 'sun'.
19 Aug 1646 John Flamsteed born. Flamsteed became the first Astronomer Royal for England.  He assembled important catalogues of brighter stars, predicted and observed eclipses, and became the first astronomer to observe Uranus, although he mistook it for a star.
20 Aug 1977 The Voyager 2 space probe was launched by NASA to study the outer planets and interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere.
21 Aug 2017 NASA conducted a live stream of the total solar eclipse with more than 50 million views of the broadcast, and almost 31 million unique views on Facebook before and after the eclipse.
22 Aug 1834 Samuel Langley born.  Langley was an American astronomer and inventor. He fostered a way of marking standard time through astronomical observations, invented the bolometer, and made pioneering studies of the sun.
24 Aug 2006 The IAU (International Astronomical Union) voted to approve a new definition of the term 'planet' that excluded Pluto.
27 Aug 1962 Mariner 2 was launched on a journey to Venus. It was the first robotic space probe to conduct a successful planetary encounter.
28 Aug 1789 William Herschel discovered Saturn’s intriguing moon Enceladus.
28 Aug 1912 George Alcock born.  He was a British amateur astronomer and one of the most successful visual observers of novae and comets.
30 Aug 1844 Francis Baily died.  He was a British astronomer and most famous for his observations of "Baily's beads" during a total eclipse of the Sun. Baily was also a major figure in the early history of the Royal Astronomical Society, as one of the founders and as the President four times.
31 Aug 1913 Bernard Lovell born. A British physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980, and received a knighthood in 1961 for his contributions to the development of radio astronomy.

LAST UPDATED: 2026-08-08