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.
A modest meteor shower is at its best the next couple of nights. At its peak, the Eta Aquarid shower might produce a couple of dozen meteors per hour. But the Moon is almost full, so its light will wash out all but a few of the “shooting stars.”
Venus, the Evening Star, flirts with El Nath, the tip of one of the horns of Taurus, the bull, for the next few weeks. The star is a couple of degrees above Venus this evening. Venus will draw closer over the coming nights but won’t quite catch up to it.
The Moon is high in the sky at nightfall. Regulus, the bright star that marks the heart of Leo, the lion, stands close below it.
The Moon reaches first quarter today as it aligns at a right angle to the line between Earth and the Sun. Sunlight illuminates half of the lunar hemisphere that faces us.
Arcturus, the third-brightest star in the night sky, is in the east at nightfall and about the same altitude in the west at first light tomorrow. The light from Arcturus that reaches your eye tonight has been traveling through space since 1983.
The galaxy M83, a “mini-Milky Way,” arcs low across the south on spring evenings. It is in Hydra, the water-snake, and climbs into view a couple of hours after sunset. Binoculars reveal a small, hazy circle of light. Telescopes show more detail.
Messier 53 is a globular star cluster in the constellation Coma Berenices. It is well up in the east at nightfall and is an easy target for binoculars. It’s easier to see by around midnight, as the Moon drops from view.
Venus is our closest planetary neighbor and the brightest object in the night sky except the Moon. In fact, you can see them close together tonight. Venus, the “evening star,” is to the right of the Moon as night falls.
A couple of bright companions attend the Moon this evening. Aldebaran, the orange eye of Taurus, the bull, stands just to the left of the Moon. And Venus, the brilliant “evening star,” is well above them.
As winter gives way to spring, Orion is dropping from view. The hunter is fairly low in the west at sunset and sets by around 11 p.m. Orion looks like a slightly lopsided rectangle of stars, with a short diagonal line of bright stars near its center.
