Spectacular mutual event movies from Jupiter, complicated Perseids, a tough penumbral eclipse and more

Hard to define the highlight of astronomical events observed in the past two weeks - but a hi-res video of a mutual event of two Jovian satellites on Aug. 16 from the Philippines may well be it; it's also discussed here, here, here and here while someone else measured a nice lightcurve. A few hours earlier another mutual event movie with resolved satellites was shot in Germany while this this video from France of Aug. 4 led to a fine lightcurve, too. • Io covering its own shadow near opposition. • About the occultation of 45 Cap a long report with some analysis and an article with few insights but pretty pictures.

• While at Jupiter, here is a detection of its moon Thebe by an amateur with a scope < 1 m - probably two firsts for this moon discovered by Voyager 1! • About the fading impact spot we have brief updates from Aug. 18 and Aug. 16, a longer report and an update of Aug. 13, a polar animation, a drawing of Aug. 18, pictures of Aug. 7 and Aug. 6 (another one, also an animation and a smooth-morphed version, and yet another picture), several current pictures with & without the spot, a video from July, a long summary of events, a podcast in which H. Hammel discusses the HST observations - and yet another podcast.

Saturn's rings at equinox with the Sun exactly from the side have been hard to observe as the planet is very close to the Sun now - but there are pictures of Aug. 10, Aug. 14 and Aug. 15 (a daytime image!) and visual reports of Aug. 14 and Aug. 15. • On Uranus an amateur detection of Miranda (there is still some interest in these moons). • And Venus on Aug. 8.

The penumbral eclipse of the Moon on Aug. 6 was invisible to the eye, regardless of optical equipment (incl. none at all) - but the effect could be brought out photographically: by image subtraction like here, here, here, here (more), here, here or here or by blinking like here, here, here (more) or here. • The Moon vs. the Pleiades on Aug. 14, the thin waning lunar crescent on Aug. 19 very close to new moon, very hi-res Moon pics and the ISS crossing the Sun with many details.

10 years after the big solar eclipse in Europe some look back here, here, here, here or here. • And more pics/vids/reports from the big eclipse of 2009 from Varanasi (contact animation), the Indian flight, Chongqing, Wuhan (plus a picture), Tianhuangping (more, other expedition), Hangzhou, Yangshan, Japan and the Costa Classica (a report and more pics & data). Plus a highly processed corona from Enewetak!

The Perseids - more previews here, here and here - reached three separate maxima! From the night Aug. 12/13 a video (someone else had 1000 meteors on his camera), fine Mintron stills, a report from Europe and a composite image, from the outburst on Aug. 12 one locations's data, a report and notes about the brightness of the meteors, from the night Aug. 11/12 a composite, someone thinking these were the best Perseids in years, a review, another one, a gallery, more pictures, another composite, a nice picture, radio experiments, the alleged success of a hyped Twitter event which made not everyone happy (including amateur astronomers because of the extremely low signal/noise) - and a Perseids satire.

A fireball over central Europe on Aug. 15 at 20:00 UTC has considerable 'impact' such as here, here, here, here (video during a music festival!) and here. • Meet the SALSA meteor camera. • The new comet Garradd might reach 8th mag. in 2011 while a new Boattini isn't promising. • There are a new Nova Oph (Aug. 17 pig, report) and Nova Sgr #3 (report) - while a bizarre video tried to explain Eps Aur. • Finally impressions from Stellafane 2009.