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 Evening Star and the heart of the lion are close to the crescent Moon in early evening. The lion’s heart, the star Regulus, is almost touching the Moon. Much brighter Venus, the Evening Star, is farther to the upper left of the Moon.
Libra, the balance scales, is in the southwest this evening, to the upper right of the celestial scorpion. Libra’s brightest star represents one of the scorpion’s claws. It is called Zubeneschamali, from an Arabic name meaning “the northern claw.”
The Moon is new today at 4:43 a.m. CDT. The new Moon occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, so it is too close to the Sun to observe. It will return to view tomorrow evening as a thin crescent quite low in the sky during twilight.
The Milky Way shines at its best on summer nights. Right now, it arcs across the east as the sky gets fully dark, and passes high overhead later on. Under dark skies, it looks like a hazy band of light.
Tiny Delphinus, the dolphin, is in the east at nightfall. Its brightest stars really do outline the shape of a dolphin. Sualocin is the brightest star in the pattern, and represents the dolphin’s back.
The center of the Milky Way Galaxy is in good view as night falls. It’s in the constellation Sagittarius, whose most prominent stars form the outline of a teapot. The center of the galaxy is immersed in puffs of “steam” that appear to rise from the teapot.
The Moon and the planet Mars line up with the star Aldebaran in tomorrow’s dawn sky. Mars looks like a bright star to the lower right of the Moon. Aldebaran is even brighter, about the same distance to the lower right of Mars.
The Coathanger is a pattern of 10 stars in Vulpecula, the fox, and is a good target for binoculars. Sweep them from the bright star Altair, low in the east at nightfall, toward brighter Vega, far to its upper left. The Coathanger is a third of the way along that line.
61 Cygni was the first star to have its distance accurately measured. It’s 11.4 light-years away, in Cygnus, which is in the east at nightfall. 61 Cygni is to the lower right of Deneb, the swan’s brightest star, and is barely visible to the eye alone.
Venus, the brilliant Evening Star, nuzzles the lion the next few nights. It will pass quite close to Regulus, Leo’s brightest star. At their closest, they will be just one degree apart, which is roughly the width of a pencil held at arm’s length.
