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.
Summer officially ended a week ago, but one of its most visible star patterns is still high overhead in the evening. The Summer Triangle consists of the bright stars Deneb, Vega, and Altair. The triangle is directly overhead about 8 p.m.
Several eagles soar across the sky tonight. The brightest is the star Vega, the swooping eagle, which is overhead at nightfall. Altair, the flying eagle, is in the southeast. The Eagle Nebula is a cloud of gas and dust that outlines a bird of prey with open wings.
The Moon is at first quarter tonight. Sunlight illuminates exactly one-half of the lunar hemisphere that faces Earth. The sunlit portion of the Moon will continue to grow until the Moon is full on October 5, the date of the Harvest Moon.
A pair of bright objects stands in the southwest this evening: the Moon and the planet Saturn. Saturn, the solar system’s second-largest planet, perches below the Moon, and looks like a bright star.
Antares, the bright heart of the scorpion, stands below the Moon as night falls, shining bright orange. The brighter planet Saturn is about the same distance to the left of the Moon.
Scutum, a small, faint “shield” of stars, scoots across the southwestern sky on early autumn nights. It represents the coat of arms on the shield of John Sobieski, a 17th-century king of Poland and one of that country’s great heroes.
The constellation Cetus, the whale or sea monster, is swinging into view in the evening sky. It is low on the eastern horizon around 10 or 11 p.m., and never climbs very high during the night.
Autumn arrives in the northern hemisphere at 3:02 p.m. CDT, the moment of the autumnal equinox. The season changes when the Sun crosses the equator from north to south. The Sun will continue its southward trek until the winter solstice, in December.
The giant planet Jupiter is close to the left of the crescent Moon shortly after sunset tonight. Although it is quite low in the sky, if you have a clear horizon you should be able to spot it through the fading twilight.
With summer about to give way to fall, one of the main star patterns of the new season is climbing into prominence in the evening. The Great Square of Pegasus is in the east at nightfall. It’s tilted as it rises, so it looks like a diamond.
