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 Moon and two bright lights form a wide, flat triangle tonight. The bright planet Jupiter is to the lower left of the Moon at nightfall, with Spica, the brightest star of Virgo, about the same distance to the lower right of the Moon.
Today marks the summer solstice, which is the start of summer in the northern hemisphere. It also is the longest day of the year in the north — the longest gap between sunrise and sunset.
The Moon is at first quarter today. The Moon lines up at a right angle to the line between Earth and the Sun, so sunlight illuminates exactly half of the lunar hemisphere that faces Earth.
The constellation Lyra, the harp, is easy to find because it contains Vega, one of the brightest stars in the night sky. Vega is well up in the east during mid-evening. The other stars of Lyra form a small diamond to the lower right of Vega.
Venus, the “evening star,” is low in the west as night falls. The Beehive star cluster is close to the upper left of Venus tonight, and even closer to the planet tomorrow night. Binoculars reveal a swarm of stars, so it’s a beautiful sight.
Polaris, the North Star, marks the end of the handle of the Little Dipper. Its stars are not as bright of those of the Big Dipper. The handle arcs in the opposite direction from the Big Dipper’s, but it still looks like a dipper.
The crescent Moon is low in the west early this evening, with Venus, the brilliant “evening star,” close to the lower right. The bright planet Jupiter is in the south, with the slightly fainter planet Saturn rising in the southeast.
There’s a beautiful conjunction between the Moon and the planet Venus, the “evening star,” over the next couple of nights. Venus stands above the Moon tonight, and about the same distance to the lower right of the Moon tomorrow night.
One sure sign of summer is a triangle of bright stars in the evening sky. Called the Summer Triangle, it will make a big mark in the northern half of the sky well into autumn. Look for the triangle low in the east and northeast beginning around 10 p.m.
The Moon is new at 2:43 p.m. CDT today as it crosses the line between Earth and the Sun. It will return to view in a day or two as a thin crescent quite low in the west shortly after sunset.
