This month’s Skywatch will begin with the Solar System’s innermost planet, Mercury, which makes a decent appearance in the West sky during July’s first week. Look west–northwest, 30 minutes after sunset, low in the sky (about 10 degrees up; which is the height of a clenched fist held at arm’s length against the sky), from July 1st through July 7th. Mercury’s magnitude is +0.4; easily bright enough to see without binoculars, but binoculars will help in earlier twilight. Mercury will not set until 1 1/2 hours after sunset.
The other planet shows this month will be much easier to see and involve close approaches of Mars and Saturn in the evening skies, and Jupiter and Venus in the eastern pre-dawn skies.
As the evening sky darkens look southwest and you will be able to spot a trio of 1st magnitude objects: Mars, Saturn, and Virgo’s brightest star, Spica. On July 1st Mars will be west (to the right) of the other two. Mars will be moving steadily along its orbit path toward the other two throughout July. In the last week of July, Saturn, Soica, and Mars will form a neat triangle, which will be visible from after sunset to about 11 pm.
The night of July 24th will be especially interesting. Saturn will form one corner of a triangle base, with Spica just below and a bit left, forming the other corner. Mars will be wet (right) of these two and be the top of that triangle. Meanwhile the waxing crescent Moon will appear amidst the lower end of the triangle and make a really terrific sight. Right at the end of July, Mars will have moved a bit higher, above and right of Spica and Saturn.
If you have binoculars look at the trip of bright objects and check out their respective colors. Mars has its distinctive orange/red color, which makes a nice contrast with blue-white Spica, while Saturn has a creamy, yellowish hue.
Early risers looking east will get a dramatic view of the two brightest planet, Jupiter and Venus, all month. From July 1 to 5, they will appear only about 5 degrees apart, though faster moving Venus will cause that distance to increase. The way one can tell them apart is by noting that VEnus is the brighter of the two. In fact Venus is 10 times brighter. Venus actually reaches maximum brightness for it at -4.7 by July 9th, while Jupiter will be at -2.0. Venus is 160 times brighter than the 1st magnitude star Aldebaran (in Taurus) which is in the sky near both planets.
Be sure to try to look at these two bright planets before dawn on July 15th, when the waning crescent Moon will be seen almost exactly in between the two planets.
This month’s Moon phases are as follows: An early in the month Full Moon (July 3rd) will compete with some local fireworks displays. Last Quarter will be on July 10th; New Moon July 19th, and First Quarter is July 26th.
(On dark moon-less nights in areas where there are no artificial lights — street or houses etc. —– note the glow of the central part of our Milky Way galaxy, arching from due south up toward the zenith (top of the sky) and down toward the north-east sky. It is beautiful, especially through binoculars. You will not be able to count all the Stars you will see!!)
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