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.
The Coathanger, a pattern of 10 stars that looks like a coat hanger, is in the faint constellation Vulpecula, the fox. It lines up between the bright star Altair, which is low in the east at nightfall, and brighter Vega, far to its upper left.
Two entwined constellations climb into good view in the east and southeast this month. Ophiuchus, the serpent bearer, is one of the larger of the 88 constellations. It’s flanked by the halves of Serpens, the snake, which wraps around the serpent-bearer’s body.
The Moon will be new tomorrow night as it crosses between Earth and Sun, beginning a new cycle of phases. It will be lost from sight in the Sun’s glare, but will return to view Monday as a thin crescent quite low in the western sky shortly after sunset.
In western culture, the stars of the Big Dipper and those around it form the great bear, Ursa Major. The dipper is his body and tail, and three faint pairs of stars are his feet. In ancient Arabia, those stars represented the leaps of a gazelle.
The star cluster Messier 5 stands far to the lower left of Arcturus, a bright yellow-orange star that’s high in the south in early evening. Through binoculars, M5 looks like a fuzzy star. Small telescopes reveal some of its individual stars.
Hercules and Ophiuchus are in the east this evening. Hercules is named for the Greek hero, while Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer, is named for the mythological founder of Greek medicine. Both joined Jason aboard the Argo in search of the golden fleece.
Pollux and Castor, the twins of Gemini, are getting ready to vanish in the evening twilight. They stand side by side in the western sky as night falls like a pair of celestial eyes, with Pollux to the left. They’ll disappear from view by month’s end.
Venus is moving past a “beehive” of stars over the next few nights. The Evening Star will pass close to the outskirts of the hive, which is the star cluster Messier 44, in Cancer, the crab. When viewed through a telescope, M44 looks like a swarm of angry bees.
The Big Dipper is in the northwest at nightfall. The star at the bottom of the dipper is Dubhe, which marks the lip of the bowl. Dubhe actually consists of two pairs of stars. The members of one pair are both much bigger, brighter, and more massive than the Sun.
Saturn, the second-largest planet in the solar system, will stand close to the upper right of the Moon at dawn tomorrow. The planet looks like a bright star. Its brightness is enhanced by its icy rings, which reflect most of the sunlight that strikes them.
