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.
Camelopardalis, which represents a camel with the spots of a leopard, stands above W-shaped Cassiopeia in the northern sky at nightfall. You need skies that are dark enough to see the Milky Way to pick out the stick figure outlined by the camel’s stars.
The planet Mars is easy to find early tomorrow. It stands to the right of the Moon at first light, and looks like a bright orange star. The planet Saturn is close to the upper right of Mars, completing a beautiful display in the dawn sky.
The night will get brighter after about 2 or 3 a.m. tomorrow, as the gibbous Moon climbs into view. Saturn, the second-largest planet in the solar system, stands just below the Moon as they rise, with slightly brighter Mars farther along the same line.
The subtle band of the Milky Way arcs low across the west this evening. It sweeps from Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, in the southwest, through Orion, and over to W-shaped Cassiopeia low in the northwest.
The V-shaped face of the bull stands about a third of the way up the western sky at nightfall. Bright Aldebaran marks the bull’s eye. But the rest of the face is outlined by the Hyades, which is closer than any other star cluster, at about 150 light-years.
Under an especially dark night sky, away from city lights, you might see a few thousand stars. All of them belong to our home galaxy, the Milky Way. It’s likely that some of them were born elsewhere, but the Milky Way swallowed their home galaxies.
Jupiter, the solar system’s largest planet, is putting in a good appearance tonight. It rises below the Moon before midnight, and looks like a brilliant star.
The planets Mars and Saturn are in the south at first light, separated by the width of a finger at arm’s length. Saturn is to the upper left of slightly brighter Mars. They will be at their closest tomorrow, but will stay close together for several days.
The zodiac arcs high across the sky this evening. This band of constellations outlines the path followed by the Sun, Moon, and planets. The “twins” of Gemini, Castor and Pollux, stand almost directly overhead as night falls.
To borrow from Yogi Berra, it’s like déjà vu all over again. The Moon will be full early tomorrow. As the second full Moon of the month, it’s a Blue Moon. It is the second Blue Moon this year.
