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.
You can already get a preview of the evening skies of winter in the hours before sunrise. Highlights include the constellations Orion and Gemini, along with Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, all of which are high in the sky at first light.
The Milky Way cuts the sky in half on autumn evenings. In the southeast, look for Delphinus, the dolphin. It is a distinctive little constellation swimming below the Milky Way, just to the left of Altair, the brightest star in Aquila, the eagle.
The Dumbbell Nebula, which represents the last gasp of a dying star, is in Vulpecula, the fox. The constellation is high overhead at nightfall. The nebula is about halfway between Deneb and Altair, the stars that mark one side of the Summer Triangle.
A hard-to-see fox trots high across the sky on autumn evenings: the constellation Vulpecula. It is small and faint. But it is near the middle of the Summer Triangle, which is outlined by three bright stars.
Even if you have cloudless skies this evening, a wet view awaits you — a swath of constellations related to water. They’re known as the “celestial sea.” They stretch across the southeast in early evening, and across the entire southern sky by midnight.
Day and night will be just about equal the next few days for the entire world. That’s because fall arrives in the northern hemisphere late tonight at the September equinox, which is the moment the Sun crosses the equator from north to south.
The Moon is at last quarter tonight. It is three-quarters of the way through its monthly cycle of phases, so it lines up at a right angle to the Earth-Sun line. At that angle, sunlight illuminates half of the lunar hemisphere that faces our way.
If you have nice, dark skies, look for the Milky Way crossing the sky this evening. The subtle glow of its myriad stars arcs high across the sky as darkness falls, and drops down the western sky later on.
A bright star follows the Moon across the sky tonight. That seems appropriate, since its name, Aldebaran, means “the Follower.” The star will stand to the lower left of the Moon as they climb into view, around midnight, and closer to the Moon at dawn.
The Big Dipper stands in the northwest this evening. The bowl is roughly parallel to the horizon and the handle extends skyward. The dipper is part of Ursa Major, the big bear. The bowl represents the bear’s rump and the handle is its tail.
