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 total solar eclipse is just one week away. For skywatchers along a narrow path from Texas to Maine, the Moon will completely cover the Sun on April 8. The Sun’s hot outer atmosphere, the corona, will surround the eclipsed Sun with a silvery glow.
Canis Minor, the little dog, stands high in the south at nightfall. Its leading light is Procyon, the eighth-brightest star in the night sky. It sometimes is called the Little Dog Star to distinguish it from the Dog Star, Sirius.
Corvus, which rises in the southeast in mid-evening, represents a crow. In mythology, the god Apollo sent him to get a cup of water. Instead, Corvus ate figs, then blamed his delay on a snake. Apollo knew the crow was lying, so he flung crow, cup, and snake into the sky.
The Milky Way arcs low across the west in early evening. Its path is traced by Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, which is in the southwest; bright orange Betelgeuse, well to its upper right; and W-shaped Cassiopeia, low in the northwest.
The star that represents the head of Hercules rises below his body. It is called Rasalgethi, and it actually consists of three individual stars. Look for it clearing the northeastern horizon by midnight.
Mars is struggling to climb into view in the dawn sky. It looks like a moderately bright star, quite low in the east-southeast during dawn twilight. It’s fairly easy to spot from the southern latitudes of the U.S., but harder to see from farther north.
When the pyramids were built, north was marked not by Polaris, today’s North Star, but by Thuban, a star in the sinuous body of Draco, the dragon. Egyptian architects used the star to align the sides of the pyramids with the cardinal directions.
The Moon passes by the star Spica the next couple of nights. The brightest star of Virgo is below the Moon as they climb into good view this evening, but closer above the Moon tomorrow night.
There’s a penumbral lunar eclipse tonight, as the Moon passes through Earth’s faint outer shadow, the penumbra. The eclipse is so faint that few will notice a difference. The full Moon will have only a slight shading.
Denebola, the second-brightest star of Leo, the lion, stands to the upper left of the almost-full Moon this evening, by about the width of your fist held at arm’s length. Denebola is 36 light-years away, which is just down the astronomical block.
