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.
Most stars are so faint that our eyes can’t see their color. A few exceptions are in view this evening. Betelgeuse, in the south-southwest at nightfall, is orange. So is Aldebaran, to its right. Rigel, below Betelgeuse, is blue-white, as is Regulus, in the east.
Camelopardalis, the giraffe, is one of the largest constellations, covering a big wedge of the northern sky. But it isn’t very bold. All of its stars are so faint that you need to get away from city lights to see them.
The constellation Argo Navis represented the ship that carried Jason and the Argonauts. But the constellation was unwieldy, so it was split into three constellations: Carina, the keel; Vela, the sail; and Puppis, the deck at the stern of the ship.
The Moon is “new,” so it’s hidden in the Sun’s glare. But coastal residents will feel its presence because the Moon is closest to Earth for the year. The combination of the lunar phase and distance will create some of the highest tides of the year.
The Big Dipper is in Ursa Major, the great bear. The constellation has given its name to a group of a few dozen stars that appear to move together: the Ursa Major Moving Group. Its core is in Ursa Major, but it also includes stars in other constellations.
The star cluster Messier 3 ascends the eastern sky tonight. It is above or to the upper left of bright yellow-orange Arcturus, which climbs into good view by 10 p.m. The cluster is visible through binoculars as a small, round, faint smudge of light.
The star system HD 110067 is about 100 light-years away, in the constellation Coma Berenices, which is in the east this evening. The system is home to six known planets, making it one of the largest planetary families yet seen beyond our own solar system.
The Coma Cluster is a collection of thousands of galaxies in Coma Berenices. The constellation climbs into good view, in the east, by 8 or 9 p.m. Some of its brighter stars form sparkling ribbons, with the cluster of galaxies far beyond.
A sprinkling of faint stars stands in the east a few hours after sunset, to the upper right of Arcturus, the brightest star in that part of the sky. The stars are the main features of Coma Berenices, which represents the golden hair of Queen Berenice II of Egypt.
The two closest and most prominent star clusters are high in the western sky at nightfall. The Hyades looks like a downward-pointing letter V with a bright orange star at one point. The dipper-shaped Pleiades is to the right of the Hyades.
