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 full Moon lights up the sky the next couple of nights. It’s the second-closest full Moon of the year, so it’s especially bright. Because this is the first full Moon after the Harvest Moon, which we saw in September, it’s called the Hunter’s Moon.
The double star Algedi, in Capricornus, is in the south-southeast at nightfall. The eye can just make it out as two points of light. They appear so close together that it seems like they must be related. In reality, the stars are hundreds of light-years apart.
The Orion Nebula climbs into good view after midnight and stands high in the south-southwest at dawn, below Orion’s Belt. It looks like a faint, fuzzy star. The nebula is a vast stellar nursery that is energized by the light of several brilliant young stars.
The gibbous Moon rolls across the southern sky tonight. The planet Saturn, which looks like a bright star, is to the left of the Moon at nightfall. Saturn will be closer to the upper right of the Moon tomorrow evening.
Grus, the crane, moves low across the south on October evenings. The star that marks the crane’s head, Gamma Gruis, is visible from most of the U.S. Tonight it stands due south about 10 p.m., below the Moon. The farther south you are, the higher the star stands.
Pisces, the fishes, which is one of the constellations of the zodiac, is in the eastern sky at nightfall. It is faint, though, so you need a dark sky to see it. It stands to the left of the bright planet Saturn.
Cassiopeia the queen is in the northeast at nightfall. It looks like a sideways letter W or M. It rotates high across the north during the night, and is in the northwest at dawn.
A wide swath of the southern sky at this time of year is known as the Celestial Sea. It contains several constellations that are associated with water. All of them were drawn and named millennia ago, when their appearance in the night sky heralded a rainy time of year.
Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, climbs into good view in the east-northeast by 11 p.m. It looks like a brilliant star. Binoculars will reveal its four largest moons, which look like tiny stars near the planet.
The Moon huddles quite close to Antares this evening. The bright star represents the heart of the constellation Scorpius, the scorpion. They are low in the southwest at nightfall.
