Scorpius and Sagittarius highlight July nights, scooting low across the south. Antares highlights the scorpion’s hook-shaped body, with teapot-shaped Sagittarius to its left. Under dark skies, the Milky Way rises from the teapot’s spout like steam. Meanwhile, the Big Dipper stands high in the north and northwest during the evening, with its handle to the upper left and bowl to the lower right.
The full Moon of July is known as the Hay Moon, Thunder Moon, or Apollo Moon.
Perigee July 13
Apogee July 25
Moon phases are Central Time.
M22, a cluster of a half-million stars, stands above teapot-shaped Sagittarius, which wheels low across the south tonight. The cluster is well to the left of the Moon at nightfall, and is visible through binoculars. It is about 10,000 light-years away.
Cygnus is in the eastern sky at nightfall. The first confirmed black hole, Cygnus X-1, is about half way between the swan’s bill and the intersection of its body and wings. The black hole is encircled by a bright disk of superhot gas.
Antares, the leading light of the scorpion, is in good view tonight, to the left of the Moon as night falls. The star is classified as a red supergiant. It is much larger, heavier, and brighter than the Sun.
Mars is inching into the morning sky. It looks like a fairly bright orange star in the east at dawn. The star Elnath, the tip of one of the horns of Taurus, is to the left of Mars. The bull’s eye, Aldebaran, is to the right. It’s brighter than Mars, but about the same color.
The Moon reaches its first-quarter phase today at 6:05 a.m. CDT. It stands at a right angle to the line that connects Earth and the Sun, so sunlight illuminates exactly half of the lunar hemisphere that faces our way.
Spica, the leading light of the constellation Virgo, the maiden, stands above the Moon at nightfall. It is a binary star system, with at least one of its members fated to explode as a supernova.
Sagitta, the arrow, slices through the Milky Way. It is one of the smallest of the 88 constellations. As darkness falls this evening, look for it in the east, between Deneb and Altair, two of the stars of the Summer Triangle.
T Coronae Borealis has been flaring up every 80 years. The last outburst was in 1946, so it’s due for the next one. Corona Borealis is a semicircle of stars high in the southwest at nightfall. T Coronae is close to the top left end of the semicircle.
The crescent Moon is in the west as darkness falls. The brilliant planet Venus, the Evening Star, is close to the right. Venus outshines every other planet and star in the night sky.
The Evening Star and the heart of the lion are close to the crescent Moon in early evening. The lion’s heart, the star Regulus, is almost touching the Moon. Much brighter Venus, the Evening Star, is farther to the upper left of the Moon.
