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.
Vega, one of the brightest stars of summer nights, is low in the east-northeast at nightfall and soars high overhead later on. It is about 25 light-years away. It’s a bit bigger, brighter, and heavier than the Sun, but just 10 percent the Sun’s age.
Spica, the brightest star of the constellation Virgo, is close to the Moon tonight. Spica is actually two stars that are locked in a tight orbit around one another. They are so close together that they are impossible to see as individual stars.
Beta Scorpii, a system of at least six stars, is at the left side of a row of stars that represents the head of Scorpius. It’s low in the southeast at nightfall, above Antares, the scorpion’s bright orange heart.
Zubeneschamali and Zubenelgenubi skitter across the southern sky on May evenings. They are far above Antares, the bright heart of the scorpion, which climbs into view by about 10 p.m. Although they are in Libra, they represent the claws of the scorpion.
Mars is working its way into the morning sky. The planet is quite low in the east during dawn twilight. It will climb a little higher day by day, however, and will be in good view this summer.
The Moon creeps up on the heart of Leo tonight, the star Regulus. Regulus is close to the upper left of the Moon at nightfall. The Moon will move closer before they set, around 2 a.m. They will be closest together as seen from the West Coast.
About 160 known globular clusters orbit the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The biggest and brightest is Omega Centauri, which is low in the south this evening. It may be the stripped core of a smaller galaxy that the Milky Way took over long ago.
The Moon lines up with the twins of Gemini this evening – the stars Pollux and Castor. Pollux is the brighter twin and is closer to the Moon. The brilliant planet Jupiter is to the lower right of the Moon.
Jupiter stands to the upper left of the Moon this evening. The Sun’s largest planet looks like a brilliant star. The twins of Gemini stand above the Moon. Castor, on the left, is the brighter of the two.
There’s a beautiful conjunction between the Moon and the planet Venus early this evening. Venus is the Evening Star. The Moon is a thin crescent, which means the Sun illuminates only a sliver of the lunar hemisphere that faces Earth.
