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.
The planet Mars and the Pleiades star cluster are teaming up right now. They stand due west as darkness falls, about a third of the way up the sky. Mars looks like a modest orange star. The dipper-shaped Pleiades is close to the right.
The Moon will stand quite low in the southeast at dawn tomorrow. The planet Venus, the brilliant “morning star,” will be close to the left or lower left. There’s not much time to watch them before daylight overpowers their glow.
Denebola, from a name that means “the tail of the lion,” is the third-brightest star of Leo. It’s in the east as night falls, at the bottom of the figure that outlines the lion. It is almost twice as massive as the Sun and about 15 times brighter.
One of the youngest stars in the galaxy is near the top right point of the “V” that forms the face of Taurus, the bull. In fact, T Tauri is only a few hundred thousand years old, so it’s still forming — it’s not yet shining as a true star.
The planet Saturn stands close to the upper right of the Moon at first light tomorrow. It looks like a bright star. Saturn has dozens of moons of its own. Titan, the largest, has a thick atmosphere and lakes of liquid methane.
The Moon is at last quarter tonight, three-quarters of the way through its month-long orbit around Earth. At last quarter, sunlight illuminates exactly half of the hemisphere facing our way, so it looks as though someone sliced the Moon in half.
Look for the Moon early tomorrow, with a brilliant companion close by: the planet Jupiter, which outshines everything in the night sky except the Moon and Venus. They stand side by side at first light.
Canes Venatici, the hunting dogs, is in the east-northeast at nightfall. Its brightest star is Cor Caroli. Chara, the second-brightest star, stands above it. Chara is almost identical to the Sun.
Antares will stand to the lower left of the Moon at first light tomorrow. Although it looks like a single pinpoint, the orange heart of the scorpion consists of two stars. Both are far bigger and heavier than the Sun.
Spring begins in the northern hemisphere of Mars today. The planet continues to highlight the early evening sky. It’s about a third of the way up the western sky as night falls and looks like a moderately bright orange star.
