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.
From the eastern hemisphere, the Moon will pass directly across the face of the Sun tomorrow. Along a narrow path, that wll create a brilliant “ring of fire” known as an annular eclipse. North America will miss out on the light show, though.
Stellar nurseries abound in December’s evening skies. The most prominent is the Orion Nebula. It is a hazy patch of light to the right of Orion’s Belt, a short line of three stars standing up from the eastern horizon in early to mid evening.
The star Cursa stands just above Orion’s foot, bright blue-white Rigel, in early evening. Cursa represents a footstool for Orion, a giant hunter who strides across the southern sky on winter nights.
Orion strides across the southern sky this evening. The hunter climbs into good view in the east and southeast shortly after nightfall. His brightest star, Rigel, stands to the right of his three-star belt.
The planet Mars is in good view the next couple of mornings. It looks like a modest orange star, low in the southeast at first light. It stands below the Moon tomorrow, and to the upper right of the Moon on Monday.
The Sun is making itself scarce in the northern hemisphere right now. That’s because tomorrow night marks the winter solstice, so the next couple of days are the shortest of the year — the days with the shortest interval between sunrise and sunset.
Spica will stand below the Moon at first light tomorrow and to the right of the Moon the next day. The star is massive enough to end its life as a supernova. When it explodes, it will expel a bounty of elements forged in its core into space.
Delta Cephei, one of the brighter stars in Cepheus, the king, which is high in the north at nightfall, is about 900 light-years from us. Knowing that range is important because the star is like a mile-marker. Its distance helps measure the scale of the universe.
Today is the beginning of Saturnalia, an ancient Roman festival. The early Christian church may have adopted December 25 as the date for Christmas in part to counteract the effects of Saturnalia and other pagan festivals.
Regulus, the bright star that marks the heart of the constellation Leo, the lion, stands close to the right of the Moon as they climb into good view late this evening.
