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 first intentional message to other civilizations was beamed into the galaxy 50 years ago tomorrow. The target for the message was M13, a star cluster in Hercules. It’s in the west-northwest at nightfall. It’s an easy target for binoculars or a small telescope.
The Moon will be full tomorrow at 3:29 p.m. CST, when it lines up opposite the Sun in our sky. It will rise around sunset tomorrow and remain in view all night, scooting fairly low across the south.
Cetus, the whale or sea monster, swims through the eastern evening sky this month. It appears high in the southeast by about 8 p.m. Its brightest star, Menkar, forms the monster’s nose, at the constellation’s northeastern corner.
The planet Uranus is putting in its best appearance of the year. It rises around sunset and is in view all night. It’s also brightest for the year, but you still need binoculars or a telescope to see it, along the border between Taurus and Aries.
Look for bright orange Mars climbing into good view in late evening, and high in the southwest at first light. Today is the spring equinox for the Red Planet’s northern hemisphere.
The Moon covers up the planet Saturn tonight as seen from southern Florida. The rest of the U.S. will see an especially close encounter between Saturn and the Moon. Saturn looks like a bright star and will pass just a fraction of a degree from the Moon.
The bright Moon washes out the fainter stars tonight. One that shines through is Hamal, the leading light of Aries, the ram. It’s in the east at nightfall. It’s about 65 light-years away and it’s a giant, which means it’s bigger, heavier, and brighter than the Sun.
Capella is the brightest star of Auriga the charioteer and the sixth-brightest star in the entire night sky. It climbs into good view in the northeast in early evening and soars high overhead during the night. It’s a system of four stars split into two pairs.
Taurus, the bull, is climbing higher into the evening sky. It is in the east by about 9 p.m., and well up in the sky a couple of hours later. Look for its orange eye, the star Aldebaran. The brilliant planet Jupiter is passing through, making Taurus even easier to find.
Cygnus, the swan, which looks like a giant cross, soars high across the west as night falls. One of its treasures is the double star 16 Cygni, which is just visible to the unaided eye. One of it stars has a planet, which is much larger than Earth.
