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.
Mercury, the smallest of the solar system’s major planets, is hiding in the Sun’s glare. It lines up behind the Sun as seen from Earth. As it moves away from the Sun, it will climb into decent view in the early evening sky in a couple of weeks.
Beta Pictoris, a star in the constellation Pictor, is visible low in the south from the far-southern United States. The star is surrounded by a disk of debris which contains at least one planet. Astronomers have photographed the known planet.
The Moon is new today as it crosses the imaginary line between Earth and Sun. It is immersed in the Sun’s glow, so it’s not visible. It will return to view as a thin crescent in the western evening sky in a couple of days.
A partial solar eclipse will take place tomorrow, but it won’t be visible from the United States. The eclipse will sweep across Antarctica, the Southern Ocean, and parts of South America. At its peak, the Moon will cover about half of the Sun’s disk.
Every night as darkness falls, lonely Polaris, the pole star, pops into view in the north. Unlike the other stars, which move from night to night, Polaris remains in the same spot, marking the hub of the northern sky.
The Milky Way arcs high overhead this evening. It is anchored in the southeast by Sirius, the night sky’s brightest star. It climbs overhead to the “horns” of Taurus, then drops toward M-shaped Cassiopeia and the tail of the swan in the northwest.
A beautiful target for binoculars stands in the southeast this evening, well to the left of sparkling Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Messier 48 is a cluster of more than 100 stars, about 1,500 light-years away.
The planet Saturn stands in the southeast at first light now. It looks like a bright golden star. Tomorrow, it will be just below the crescent Moon, making it an especially easy target to find.
The planet Saturn, which looks like a bright star, stands to the lower left of the Moon early tomorrow. The planet Mars and the star Antares stand about the same distance to the right and upper right of the Moon, respectively.
Two bright planets and a bright star line up near the Moon at first light tomorrow. Mars is close to the right of the Moon, with Antares, which looks similar to Mars, farther from the Moon. The brilliant planet Jupiter stands to their upper right.
