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.
Hercules stands directly overhead this evening. Four moderately bright stars form a lopsided square that represents his body, while his head points southward. He is surrounded by several of the monsters he dispatched, including Hydra, the water snake.
Mercury, the Sun’s closest planet, is just peeking into view in the evening twilight. It looks like a fairly bright star, quite low in the western sky as night falls. The view is better from more southerly locations, and binoculars will help you find it.
The Moon has a close companion tonight: Antares, the bright star that marks the heart of the scorpion. Antares is one of the biggest and brightest stars in the entire galaxy. It is expected to explode as a supernova sometime in the next million years.
The stars that represent the head of the scorpion align near the Moon tonight. From the top, the stars are known as Pi, Delta, and Beta Scorpii. Beta is the brightest of the three. It’s also the most complicated, consisting of six individual stars.
Scorpius is home to a dense variety of star clusters. Two examples are M6 and M7, which are to the upper left of the stars that form the scorpion’s “stinger.” Under dark skies, both are visible to the unaided eye.
One of the easiest star patterns to pick out is Scorpius because it really does look like a scorpion. It is in the south at nightfall, quite low above the horizon. It has a curving body with a prominent stinger at the end.
The Moon gets cozy with the star Spica this evening. From much of the United States, in fact, the Moon will pass in front of Virgo’s brightest star, briefly blocking it from view. Astronomers will keep an eye on the event to learn more about Spica.
The North Star is one of the most important beacons in the night sky. It serves as a compass, pointing due north. It also serves as the hub of the night sky, with all of the other stars appearing to circle around it as Earth turns on its axis.
Cepheus, the king, is in the north-northeast at nightfall. The constellation looks like a child’s drawing of a house, with a square of stars topped by a triangle. None of its stars is all that bright, so you need fairly dark skies to find it.
Summer’s evening skies feature Aquila, the eagle, whose brightest star, Altair, is easy to see. But the constellation also hosts one of the faintest stars yet discovered. Known as Van Biesbroeck’s Star or VB10, it was discovered at McDonald Observatory.
