In two weeks of excitement between June 21 and July 5 this year, we lived through two of natures most remarkable demonstrations one can experience. On 21st June the “Moon swallowed up the Sun” in some parts of Africa, when the tiny Moon came between the Earth and the mighty Sun. It blocked off the Sun’s immense brightness producing a premature sunset in the middle of the afternoon and causing a total Solar eclipse. Exactly two weeks later, on July 5, when the Moon had traveled only half an orbit to the other side of Earth, “it got swallowed up by Earth”, resulting in a Lunar eclipse.
The most dominant and noticeable ‘star’ in the July skies is the brilliant red planet Mars. Having just passed closest to earth for more than 12 years, it continues to shine brilliantly. Though generally Mars is not a very impressive object even through a modest telescope, some surface features can just be distinguish using a good telescope. By the way, talking about telescopes, did you know that Galileo Galilei did not discover how to make a telescope. He only used it to observe the craters on the Moon, the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. The telescope was developed gradually and the first person attributed to its development was Hans Lipperhey who tried to patent it (unsuccessfully) in 1608.
In the sky, you will see the almost full Moon closest to Mars on 3rd as well as on 30th July when they will be about two palm widths apart. Mars continues its retrograde (reverse) movement across background stars and you can see a noticeable difference as it edges closest to the red star Antares in Scorpius on 15th July, after which it will reverse direction and continue its normal eastward movement towards the constellation of Saggitarius.
The dry cool months are here and we can expect to get uninterrupted clear night skies until at least September. The north and south direction pointers, that is the Big Dipper and the Southern Cross, are still high enough in the evening skies and can be used to mark the north-south direction very well. Scorpius in the dominant constellation this month, occupying the overhead evening sky with its three stars forming its tentacles, the red star Antares in its neck and a long winding tail that ends in a close pair forming the sting. Scorpius is the only constellation that does full justice to its namesake, the scorpion and is unmistakable to even a casual stargazer. Use this opportunity to start (or continue) your stargazing hobby by independently identifying a constellation! Below Scorpius, try to identify Sagittarius (the archer). This constellation marks the direction of the center of our Milky Way galaxy and you will notice dense concentration of stars here. The band marking the Milky Way contains numerous stars and dust patches and stretches from the southwest, passing through the Southern Cross and Sagittarius and upto Cygnus (the swan) in the northeast. Leo (the lion) with its distinctive inverted question mark head is low in the western horizon and will be lost after this month.
Among the brightest stars noticeable in the July skies are: Alpha and Beta Centauri in the south form the pair that points continuously towards the Southern Cross; the fourth brightest star Arcturus is overhead towards the north and the fifth brightest star Vega rises in the northeast. Other bright stars you will easily notice are Altair which rises in the east and Spica, the brightest star in the Virgo constellation can be seen almost overhead towards the west.
You will need to wake up early on 15th July and disturb your Friday night slumber if you want to catch the closest pairing of brilliant Venus and Saturn in the constellation of Taurus. The pair will be less than one degree apart (that is one finger width held at arm length) and can be seen in the eastern horizon just before sunrise. Below it, close to the horizon, you will see bright Jupiter and a much fainter Mercury.
Full Moon will be on 5th July (Partial Lunar Eclipse), Last Quarter will be on July 13th while New Moon will be on 20th and First Quarter will be on 27th July.
