Friday, July 5
Earth’s orbit across the Solar will not be completely round, such that our planet sits marginally farther from the Solar in July and nearer to it in January. As we speak, Earth reaches aphelion, that farthest level from the Solar, at 1 A.M. EDT. At the moment, we’re 94.5 million miles (151 million kilometers) from our star.
New Moon happens this night at 6:57 P.M. EDT, which is nice information for these within the Northern Hemisphere hoping for a have a look at Comet 13P/Olbers, which is low however observable after sundown. An hour after sundown, the comet is 20° excessive within the northwest. It was just lately recorded glowing at magnitude 6.7, nice for bigger binoculars or a small scope. For a signpost, you should utilize the magnitude 4 star 10 Ursae Majoris, which sits simply lower than 0.5° to the comet’s southwest.
Olbers is situated within the constellation Lynx, just below the entrance ft of the Nice Bear Ursa Main. As darkness falls, you’ll see the Large Dipper — standing on its bowl with the deal with pointing straight up — seem larger within the northwest, nicely above the comet’s place. A lot nearer to the horizon and setting rapidly is Most cancers the Crab, carrying the well-known open cluster M44. Swing your binoculars or scope right down to see if you happen to can catch the cluster within the 90 minutes or so after sundown, earlier than it disappears beneath the horizon.
The darkish, moonless skies can even enable observers to simply catch the dwarf planet 1 Ceres glowing at magnitude 7.3 because it reaches opposition in Sagittarius the Archer tonight at 8 P.M. EDT. Take a look at last Friday’s entry for extra particulars on learn how to spot it, or tune in later this week, once we’ll cease again to have a look.
Dawn: 5:38 A.M.
Sundown: 8:32 P.M.
Moonrise: 4:51 A.M.
Moonset: 8:56 P.M.
Moon Section: New
*Occasions for dawn, sundown, moonrise, and moonset are given in native time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. native time from the identical location.
Saturday, July 6
Early-morning observers can catch two of Jupiter’s moons crossing the large planet with their shadows this morning, though what you’ll see will depend on your location.
The gas giant rises in central Taurus round 3:15 A.M. native daylight time. These on the East Coast and within the Midwest can catch the passage of Europa’s shadow throughout the disk, shifting from east to west, seen because the planet is rising in these areas. Round 4:45 A.M. EDT, Europa itself strikes onto the disk, once more from the east shifting west. Io (nearer) and Callisto lie farther east, whereas Ganymede sits alone to the planet’s west.
Io’s shadow slips onto the disk round 5:15 A.M. CDT — after dawn within the Jap time zone and as twilight is brightening the sky within the Midwest. Europa’s shadow is now gone and Europa is approaching the western limb of the planet. Io follows its shadow just below an hour later, shortly after 5 A.M. MDT, and Europa slides off the disk simply over 10 minutes later, at 5:12 A.M. MDT.
Dawn: 5:38 A.M.
Sundown: 8:31 P.M.
Moonrise: 5:55 A.M.
Moonset: 9:39 P.M.
Moon Section: Waxing crescent (1%)
Sunday, July 7
The Moon passes 3° north of Mercury at 3 P.M. EDT. You possibly can catch the pair, together with brilliant Venus, within the night sky shortly after sundown — although you’ll must be fast.
Some 20 minutes after sundown, Venus is simply 2° excessive within the west. You’ll want a transparent horizon to identify it; an observing location a bit larger than your environment will assist as nicely. The planet glows a brilliant magnitude –3.9, which ought to assist you to spot it. By way of a telescope, Venus seems totally lit (99 %) and spans 10″.
To the higher left of Venus are Mercury and the Moon; our satellite is a fragile 5-percent-lit crescent hanging 3° above Mercury. The tiny planet glows at magnitude –0.2 and will come out of the rising twilight. You’ll have longer to look at it, because it sits 10° excessive presently. With assistance from a telescope, you’ll notice that Mercury is barely 67 % lit and seems just a little greater than half the width of Venus, about 6″ on the sky.
Mercury is roughly 1.5° east of M44 — if you happen to weren’t capable of observe it on Friday, you would possibly be capable to catch the open cluster tonight, because it’s a bit larger above the horizon sooner after sundown — although the sky can be brighter. Binoculars or a telescope will definitely carry it out lengthy earlier than the sky is darkish sufficient to see a lot with the bare eye.
Dawn: 5:39 A.M.
Sundown: 8:31 P.M.
Moonrise: 7:02 A.M.
Moonset: 10:13 P.M.
Moon Section: Waxing crescent (3%)
Monday, July 8
Saturn is rising round native midnight and presents a shocking sight with its rings almost edge-on. The planet is at present tilted simply 2° with respect to our line of sight; this tilt will improve over the following few months earlier than reducing once more for 2025’s ring-plane crossing.
Situated in Aquarius, Saturn glows at magnitude 0.9 and is simple to zero in on with a telescope. That’s precisely what you’ll wish to do that morning to catch the planet’s largest moon, Titan, passing behind the disk and disappearing in an occultation. The occasion is seen within the japanese two-thirds of the U.S.; solely these within the Pacific time zone received’t be capable to watch it.
Titan is approaching the planet from the west because it rises; the massive moon attracts nearer to the limb, lastly disappearing round 2:40 A.M. EDT. On the similar time, these with giant scopes (10 inches) and video-capture programs could discover the smaller moon Mimas transiting the planet’s disk with its shadow. Mimas is shifting from east to west, led by the shadow, passing in entrance of Saturn’s south polar area. Extra moons Enceladus and Tethys are hanging out simply east of the japanese fringe of the rings, whereas Dione and Rhea are to the west. These moons are all Tenth magnitude or fainter, so is probably not simply picked up in smaller scopes.
Dawn: 5:40 A.M.
Sundown: 8:31 P.M.
Moonrise: 8:08 A.M.
Moonset: 10:40 P.M.
Moon Section: Waxing crescent (8%)
Tuesday, July 9
This night, flip your eyes eastward because the constellation Aquila the Eagle climbs within the sky. The constellation is probably greatest recognized for its brilliant star Altair, which serves as one level within the well-known Summer time Triangle asterism. However Aquila is dwelling to quite a few deep-sky objects, together with our goal for tonight: NGC 6709, also referred to as the Flying Unicorn.
Situated within the far western area of Aquila, close to its border with Ophiuchus, this open cluster glows at magnitude 6.7 and spans about 15′ (or ¼°) on the sky. You could find it by skimming about 5° southwest of Third-magnitude Zeta (ζ) Aquilae.
NGC 6709 lies some 3,500 light-years away and comprises a number of hundred stars. Astronomers consider it’s about 140 million years previous. It’s referred to as the Flying Unicorn as a result of some observers assume its form is akin to that of the mythological beast. What do you assume? Within the picture above, the unicorn is going through to the best. Observe that your telescope could flip or rotate the picture you see in comparison with the one right here.
Dawn: 5:40 A.M.
Sundown: 8:30 P.M.
Moonrise: 9:13 A.M.
Moonset: 11:04 P.M.
Moon Section: Waxing crescent (14%)
Wednesday, July 10
In the event you’ve received a bigger scope (8 inches), tonight’s goal needs to be in your checklist: the Ninth-magnitude galaxy NGC 4631, additionally referred to as the Whale Galaxy. You’ll discover the constellation Canes Venatici beneath (to the left of) the Large Dipper’s deal with within the north tonight earlier than midnight. NGC 4631 is situated about midway on a line drawn between Cor Caroli (Canes Venatici’s alpha star) and Gamma (γ) Comae Berenices to its southwest. The galaxy itself is 6.5° southwest of Cor Caroli.
Measuring about 15′ alongside its longest aspect, the Whale Galaxy is an edge-on spiral with a brilliant heart and mottled arms. Its form has been distorted by a close-by satellite galaxy, NGC 4627, which itself has been closely warped by the interplay. It’s possible you’ll even be capable to spot Twelfth-magnitude NGC 4627, some 2.5′ northwest of the bigger galaxy.
The celestial cetacean additionally has one other companion: Tenth-magnitude NGC 4656, additionally referred to as the Hockey Stick Galaxy. This sits simply 0.5° east-southeast of the Whale Galaxy and short-focal-length telescopes will present each in the identical area of view. Its closely distorted form additionally speaks to interactions with the Whale.
Dawn: 5:41 A.M.
Sundown: 8:30 P.M.
Moonrise: 10:14 A.M.
Moonset: 11:25 P.M.
Moon Section: Waxing crescent (21%)
Thursday, July 11
Dwarf planet 1 Ceres is passing close to the globular cluster M54 in Sagittarius the Archer. You possibly can catch the pairing tonight within the south a number of hours after sundown, because the Teapot asterism stands about 20° above the horizon (relying in your observing location, in fact).
Ceres is close to magnitude 2.6 Zeta Sagittarii, which hyperlinks the bottom of the deal with with the teapot’s physique. With binoculars or a telescope, merely heart on Zeta after which swing your view about 1° west of the star to identify the seventh-magnitude main-belt world.
M54 is simply 1° southwest of Ceres, forming a triangle along with the dwarf planet and Zeta Sag. The globular cluster shines at magnitude 7.6 — roughly the identical brightness as Ceres, although the compact ball of stars spans about 12′ in diameter. Situated almost 90,000 light-years away, M54 is probably going not one of many Milky Way’s globulars in any respect, however as an alternative belongs to the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, or SagDEG. This small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way was not found till 1994.
Ceres will swing nearer to M54 over the following few days; it would stand due north of the cluster on the night of the fifteenth.
Dawn: 5:42 A.M.
Sundown: 8:29 P.M.
Moonrise: 11:14 A.M.
Moonset: 11:44 P.M.
Moon Section: Waxing crescent (29%)
Friday, July 12
The Moon reaches apogee, the farthest level from Earth in its orbit, at 4:11 A.M. EDT, when it would sit 251,259 miles (404,362 km) away.
Mars and Uranus are drawing shut collectively within the early-morning sky; they are going to move inside 0.6° of one another on the fifteenth. You possibly can examine their progress in the present day within the two hours or so earlier than dawn, because the pair climbs within the japanese sky. Each are situated in far western Taurus, to the best of the Pleiades star cluster. First-magnitude Mars is seen to the bare eye about 8° southwest of the cluster. The Crimson Planet’s disk spans some 6″ on the sky, at present the identical obvious measurement as Mercury.
When you’ve discovered Mars, you’ll want binoculars or a telescope to readily spot magnitude 5.8 Uranus. The distant ice giant sits simply over 2° northeast of Mars and can seems as a “flat” grey star. Over the following few days, Uranus will seem to remain put as Mars attracts nearer, passing due south of the ice giant subsequent week on Monday. We’ll actually spotlight the occasion, so examine again for particulars then!
Dawn: 5:42 A.M.
Sundown: 8:29 P.M.
Moonrise: 12:13 P.M.
Moonset: —
Moon Section: Waxing crescent (38%)
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