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.
Under dark skies, you might see a glowing pyramid of light in the eastern sky before dawn over the next few days. It’s called zodiacal light because it appears along the zodiac. It’s caused by sunlight illuminating dust grains in the plane of the solar system.
Perseus is climbing into the evening sky this month. Tonight, it’s in good view, in the northeast, by about 10:30. It rises a few minutes earlier each night, providing more time to enjoy one of the highlights of the autumn sky.
The Moon will be new at 6 a.m. CDT tomorrow as it crosses the imaginary line between Earth and the Sun. It will return to view as a thin crescent, low in the western sky, on Friday.
If you can get away from city lights, this is a good time to gaze at the Milky Way, which is the combined glow of millions of stars in the disk of the Milky Way Galaxy. It arcs high overhead during the evening.
Aquarius is in the southeast at nightfall. One of its most famous denizens is Trappist-1, a star system that hosts at least seven planets. It’s near the border with Pisces. The star is only 40 light-years away, yet it’s too faint to see without a big telescope.
A beautiful trio highlights the eastern sky at dawn tomorrow: the crescent Moon; Venus, the “morning star;” and M44, the Beehive star cluster. The cluster stands close above the Moon and Venus, although you need binoculars to pick it out.
Alpheratz — a name that means “the horse’s shoulder” — is the brightest star of the Great Square of Pegasus. It’s at the left-hand point of the square during the evening hours. Officially, though, it’s a member of the adjoining constellation Andromeda.
Neptune is putting on its best showing of the year. The planet is lining up opposite the Sun, so it rises around sunset and is in view all night. It’s brightest for the year, too. Even so, you need a telescope to see it, near the border between Aquarius and Pisces.
Neptune, the solar system’s fourth-largest planet, is at opposition. That means it lines up opposite the Sun, so it is closest to Earth for the entire year. It’s in the sky all night, too, near the border between Aquarius and Pisces.
Cassiopeia is awash in star clusters. Several of them huddle near the letter M or W formed by some of the constellation’s brighter stars. One example is Caroline’s Rose, named for its appearance and its discoverer, Caroline Herschel, who first saw it in 1783.
