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.
Venus is passing behind the Sun today, at a point its its orbit called superior conjunction. The planet is full as seen from Earth, but it’s also hidden in the Sun’s glare. It won’t return to view for weeks, when it will appear as the Evening Star.
The Moon stands in the east at nightfall and arcs high across the southern half of the sky during the night. Regulus, the bright heart of Leo, the lion, is just a few degrees away.
The constellation Coma Berenices soars high across the sky tonight. It is low in the northeast as darkness falls and almost directly overhead around midnight. One of its brightest stars, Beta Comae, is a yellow star much like our own Sun.
The constellations Corvus and Crater are low in the southeast after nightfall. Corvus, the crow, is a group of four stars that resembles a sail, while Crater, the cup, consists of a semicircle of stars (the cup’s bowl) plus two other stars below it.
Cor Caroli, the brightest star of Canes Venatici, the hunting dogs, is in the east at nightfall, to the right of the tip of the Big Dipper’s handle. Its name means Heart of Charles and refers to England’s King Charles I or his son, Charles II.
The Moon is at first quarter today, one-fourth of the way through its month-long cycle of phases. Sunlight illuminates exactly half of the lunar hemisphere that faces our way.
Today is the vernal equinox, the start of spring in the northern hemisphere. A myth says you can balance an egg on its end on the equinoxes and only on the equinoxes. It’s not true. Your odds of standing an egg on its end are no better today than any other day.
Spring arrives in the northern hemisphere in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. That moment is known as the vernal equinox. Over the centuries, it’s played a central role in the development of the calendar.
Look for Mars above the Moon this evening. The planet looks like an orange star. The true star Aldebaran, which is also orange, is about the same distance to the upper left of the Moon.
The divided halves of a snake are moving into the evening sky. Known as Serpens, the serpent, they rise beginning in late evening. The constellation is split because the snake wraps around the intervening stars of Ophiuchus, the serpent-bearer.
