The Summer Triangle still looms high in the S at nightfall but moves into the W by our star map times. Its place on the meridian is taken by the less spectacular stars of Pegasus.
Jupiter, brighter than any star, sinks from low in the S at nightfall tonight to set in the SW at our map times. The giant planet is now creeping eastwards above the Teapot in Sagittarius and dims from mag -2.3 to -2.1 as it recedes. Catch it above-left of the Moon next Monday when it shows a 39 arcsec disk through a telescope.
Brighter still and improving from mag -3.9 to -4.0, but still very low in the twilight, is Venus. Its position at sunset changes from 6° in the SW to 7° in the SSW during the month, and by the end of the period it sets some 80 minutes after the Sun - enough time for its brilliance to spark UFO reports from casual observers with an unobstructed horizon.
Low in the E at our map times are Gemini, Taurus and the Pleiades, soon to be joined by the imposing form of Orion which climbs to dominate our S sky before dawn. By then, too, Saturn is well placed low in the E some 20° below the Sickle of Leo where it shines at mag 1.0 when it stands 5° above-left of the waning earthlit Moon on the 25th. The S face of Saturn's ring system is inclined at 4° at present, narrowing to only 2° by October 31, so that the rings appear as narrow spikes on either side of the planet's 16 arcsec disk.
After it passes between the Sun and the Earth on the 6th, and after another flyby by the Messenger probe on the same day, Mercury emerges for its best morning apparition of the year. From the 16th to the month's end, it brightens from mag 0.6 to -0.9, rises more than 90 minutes before the Sun and stands 7° to 10° high in the ESE 40 minutes before sunrise. Look for it 7° left of the vanishingly slim crescent Moon on the 27th.