Features: Calendar | Lunar Almanac | Monthly Topic
This Month's Night Sky - NOTE: The next paragraph describes the sky as it
appears at 10 pm EST (11 pm EDT) near mid- month. The sky also looks
this way at 11 pm EST (midnight EDT) during the beginning of the month and
at 9 pm EST (10 pm EDT) by month's end.
Bright blue-white Vega (Lyra) shines high overhead as it
“leads” the Summer Triangle across the night sky. The
“Triangle” is the summer’s most prominent asterism and is
made up of three stars: Vega, the brightest, Denab (Cygnus)
and Altair (Aquila). In the SW, Arcturus (Bootes) is
dropping towards the horizon as Spica (Virgo) vanishes from
sight below. Also look for Antares (Scorpius) low in the SW.
The stars of constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius,
embedded in the “Milky Way” (part of one of the spiral “arms”
of our galaxy), are at their best this month. Look for
another famous asterism, “the teapot” (Sagittarius). The
“Great Square of Pegasus” asterism, now appears on the E
horizon. These are the stars of autumn!
At mid-month, MERCURY appears in the morning sky about a
half hour before sunrise . For those with telescopes or
binoculars, it will be in its crescent phase. Look low
above the ENE horizon. VENUS begins the month paired with
dimmer SATURN in the evening sky . Look low in the W about
an hour after sunset. Venus is also in its crescent phase.
Both planets separate and sink lower and lower as the month
progresses. MARS glows dimly early in the morning while
bright JUPITER shines high in the S all night. The MOON
appears near Mars on the 9th., near Saturn on the 16th.
and near Jupiter on the 25th.
Calendar of Events
NOTE: For those observers not in the ET zone, convert the calendar times to your zone's time by subtracting one hour for CT, two for MT and three for PT. Don't forget to adjust for Daylight Savings Time when necessary by subtracting one hour from your planisphere's time.; Dawn and dusk times must also be corrected. See your local newspaper, TV news, or cable TV's Weather Channel for sunrise and sunset times. Unfortunately some of these events may occur during daylight hours in your area.
| DATE | EVENT |
01 |
Look W for a very close conjunction (less than one degree) of Venus and Saturn around 9 pm. (Begin watching an hour after sunset) Note the bright star, Regulus (Leo) above and to the left. |
11 |
Look between ENE and E about 45 minutes before sunrise to see a "triangle" formed by the open star cluster M45, the Pleiades, (Taurus),above and to the left of the crescent Moon. The Moon is below and to the right with the bright star Aldebaran (Taurus), glowing far below the Pleiades. |
13 |
Look ENE about 45 minutes before sunrise to see elusive Mercury low on the horizon. Note the crescent Moon off to the left. |
16 |
Look W for an extremely close conjunction (less than 0.1 degree) of the crescent Moon and Saturn around 7 pm. (Begin watching around 45 minutes after sunset) Note bright Venus off to the left and Regulus only about 3 degrees above Venus and to the left. |
17 |
Look for a conjunction (3 degrees) of the Moon and Venus around 6 am. |
28 |
The Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower peaks. This shower is very broad and can be seen from mid July until well into August. Unfortunately the nearly full Moon will greatly affect tonight's viewing. |
29 |
Tonight's full Moon is often called the "Summer Moon". |
| Phases of the Moon | Phase and Date(s) | Best viewed before local midnight |
 |
New |
Deep Space Objects |
 |
1st. Qtr |
Planets & Moon |
 |
Full |
Moon |
 |
Last |
Deep Space & Planets |
Topic of the month: Lunar feature: Petavius Crater
| Crater Petavius is a unique crater located very close to the
Moon's SE limb (visible edge). It lies at the at the
southern tip of Mare Fecunditatis (The sea of fertility) and
is approximately 177 kilometers (about 110 miles) in
diameter. It was thought to be nearly circular and only
visually elongated due to its location so close to the lunar
limb (foreshortening). However, when viewed from directly
above by the Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft, it is elongated and
distinctly pear-shaped!
--See you next month ! |
| The above image was taken from Damian Peach's web site, " The Moon in Close Up" from Damian Peach's Views of the Solar System at www.damianpeach.com. This image is reproduced by permission. | |
This installment of "Whats Up?" is ©2007 Ronald A. Leeseberg, encoded by Dawn Jenkins for Astra's Stargate.
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