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The Night Sky in July

Posted on: Friday, 2 July 2004, 06:00 CDT

SUN: Still very low in the sky, the Sun is at its greatest distance from Earth for the year on July 5.

Moon: Today brings full moon, followed by last quarter on the 9th. New moon occurs on the 17th, while first quarter falls on the 25th.

Planets

Mercury has now moved into the north-western evening sky for its best appearance of the year, setting around two hours after the Sun. On July 11, Mercury will be only about a quarter of a degree from Mars. Venus rapidly moves up the morning sky and is easily visible in morning twilight, rising around 5am. During the first part of July, Venus will be close to the reddish star, Aldebaran.

Mars is still in the evening sky, but becoming difficult to see as it draws closer to the Sun. On July 19, the thin crescent Moon will be 4 degrees from Mars.

Jupiter will remain an early evening object, setting about 9.30pm. Saturn is in conjunction with the Sun on July 8, so will be all but invisible this month.

Stars, constellations

The Milky Way runs from north-east to south-west. Scorpius, with its bright star Antares, is almost overhead. Directly below it, towards the south-west, are Centaurus, the Southern Cross and Carina.

Looking south, not far above the horizon, we can see two bright stars, Canopus and Achernar.

In the east, Capricornus and Aquila have just risen. Straight above them is the large con-stellation of Sagittarius.

In the northern sky we can see Bootes, Hercules and Corona Borealis. The western sky contains Corvus, Hydra and Virgo.

* Prepared for The Daily News by Tom Whelan, Cape Egmont Observatory, Pungarehu.

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