As July begins, the moon starts out at full phase and appearing quite large, as it is at perigee (closest to Earth in its orbit). On the evening of July 8, Uranus is occulted for parts of the Indian Ocean and Australia. For us, it’s a very close approach. July 12, Aldebaran is within a degree of the moon — another occultation, this time closer to home, but mostly in the extreme north. By July 25, Saturn joins up with our satellite in the southern evening sky. And, by July 31, the moon is full again.
Mercury is an early morning object for the first half of the month, best for southern observers. Venus puts on a show at its maximum brightness, joined by Jupiter in the western evening sky on both July 1 and 31. The separation is much greater on the latter part of the month as Venus has turned the corner in its orbit and is beginning to fall toward the sun. The two planets appear to be the same size, only because Venus is much closer than the distant Jupiter. The slender moon slides by Jupiter and Venus July 18, the third occultation of the month, this time in the South Pacific.
Mars is not visible this month.
Jupiter is low in the western sky, joining with Venus at the beginning of the month and shadowing the bright planet for all of July, but getting further and further away with each passing day. Watch for a photo opportunity July 18, with Jupiter, Venus and the moon all within a few degrees of each other.
Saturn is well placed in the evening sky, rising at sunset. July 1 is another photo-opp, with the full moon rising and Saturn just a little off to the upper right. Again, July 25, the gibbous moon joins Saturn in the south.
Uranus appears in the eastern sky around midnight. Watch for a close approach of the moon July 8.
Neptune rises in the late evening, crossing the sky all through the night.
July 29 is the peak of the south delta-Aquariid meteor shower, with about 20 meteors per hour under ideal conditions.
The New Horizons spacecraft has been nearing its planned encounter with Pluto, having travelled over 7.5 billion kilometres to the outer reaches of the Solar System since January 2006. NASA set out a list of things it (and the planetary science community) wanted to know about Pluto. What is its atmosphere made of and how does it behave? What does the surface of Pluto look like? Are there big geological structures? How do particles ejected from the sun (known as the solar wind) interact with Pluto's atmosphere? The on-board instruments are poised to answer these questions as the spacecraft hurtles by July 14 at 58,536 km/h.
— James Edgar has had an interest in the night sky all his life. He joined the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in 2000 and is now the society’s president, assistant editor and a contributor to the Observer’s Handbook, production manager of the bi-monthly RASC Journal. He was given the RASC Service Award at the 2012 General Assembly in Edmonton.
