Woohoo, welcome to summer and some amazing star gazing. Now starts the time to look south to the constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius and, straight up, we have the summer triangle! As the nights get longer, but it is still warm, the stargazing season is in full swing.
Jupiter and Saturn are coming up in the late evening with Saturn rising around 11:00 and Jupiter rising around 11:30. Mercury can be seen right before dawn to the east. As Mercury can be elusive, try to get up early to see it. It should be pretty prominent and you can say that you have seen it!
There are so many objects to see in the summer sky. In Sagittarius, you the the Lagoon, Trifid and Swan Nebulae, and in Scorpius, you have M4, a beautiful globular cluster, right near the heart of the scorpian, Antares. By looking between these 2 constellations, you are looking at the heart of our galaxy. It is fortunate that there is so much dust between us or we wouldn’t be getting much sleep as the sky would be totally bright! The summer triangle consists of the star Deneb in the constellation Cygnus, which gives us the amazing double star Albireo; the star Vega in the constellation Lyra, which gives us the beautiful Ring Nebula (M57); and the star Altair in the constellation Aquilla. Within this region, which is in the Milky Way, even looking with binoculars is worth the view!
Moon Phase Calendar July 2021
| Moon Phase | Date | Time of Day |
|---|---|---|
| New Moon | July 9 | 9:17 P.M. |
| First Quarter | July 17 | 6:11 A.M. |
| Full Moon | July 23 | 10:37 P.M. |
| Last Quarter | July 31 | 9:18 A.M. |
