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 constellation Fornax rises in the southeast shortly after nightfall. It’s not much to look at; its three brightest stars form a wedge that aims toward the south. In fact, it is so faint and so far south that it wasn’t drawn until the mid-1700s.
Today is the date of Saturnalia, an ancient Roman festival tied to the upcoming winter solstice. It honored Saturn, a god of agriculture, and it was the biggest party of the year — a week-long holiday that ended with rounds of gifts.
Draco, the dragon, twists through the northern evening sky. It is low in the northwest at sunset and rotates below the North Star during the night. When Egypt built the pyramids of Giza, the North Star was Thuban, one of Draco’s stars.
A cloud of cosmic gas and dust known as the Horsehead Nebula stands just below Orion’s Belt, a line of three bright stars that rises almost straight up from the southeastern horizon by 8 p.m. The Horsehead is visible in fairly small telescopes.
A bright arrow lines up in the south and southeast at dawn tomorrow. The crescent Moon forms the arrow’s feathers, with the shaft outlined by the equally spaced planets Jupiter and Mars, to the upper right of the Moon. The star Spica is the arrow’s tip.
The Moon and the planet Jupiter, which looks like a brilliant star, anchor a beautiful lineup in the southeastern sky at first light tomorrow. The much-fainter planet Mars stands to their upper right, with the star Spica farther along the same line.
Mars and the Moon are part of a beautiful quartet in tomorrow’s pre-dawn sky. Mars will stand close below the Moon, with the star Spica to the right of the Moon. The brilliant planet Jupiter perches below them.
One of the strongest meteor showers of the year, the Geminids, should be at its best on Wednesday night. The shower may sprinkle dozens of meteors into the sky per hour. The Moon won’t interfere with the fireworks, so it should be a good show.
Orion the hunter clears the eastern horizon by about 8 p.m. Look for its belt of three moderately bright stars, which aims straight up into the sky as Orion rises. It’s flanked by Orion’s brightest stars: Betelgeuse to the left, Rigel to the right.
The Moon will reach its “last-quarter” phase at 1:51 a.m. CST tomorrow, when it lines up at a right angle to the line between Earth and the Sun. Sunlight will illuminate half of the lunar surface, with that fraction growing smaller over the coming week.
