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.
Look southeast this evening for Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, which climbs into good view by 8 or 9 p.m. As it climbs away from the horizon its light passes through a thick layer of air, so it twinkles fiercely, changing colors rapidly.
The Milky Way arches high overhead on December evenings. This faint band passes from the Northern Cross, which is in the west, to W-shaped Cassiopeia high in the north, to near the face of Taurus, the bull, in the east.
A poorly known meteor shower should be at its peak tonight. In most years, the Ursids produce no more than a few meteors an hour. That could be the case this year as well, although the shower also could produce a more significant showing.
Winter arrives in the northern hemisphere tomorrow at 10:28 a.m. CST, which is the moment of the winter solstice. The Sun stands farthest south for the year, and it’s the shortest day of the year north of the equator.
One of the nearest galaxy clusters is about 60 million light-years away, in the southern constellation Fornax, which rises in the southeast in early evening. The cluster’s brightest member, NGC 1316, is a beautiful spiral galaxy.
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.
