For July 2024, the New Moon is July 5, the same day we are at aphelion, farthest from the Sun at 94.5 million miles. As your thermometer reminds us, our almost circular orbit plays a much lesser role in our seasons than does our axial tilt. The slender waxing crescent passes just above Mercury in twilight on July 7, a fine photo op and great chance to catch the innermost planet with the naked eyes. The first quarter moon is on July 13. The full moon, the Thunder Moon, is on July 21. The waning gibbous moon rises just below Saturn around 10 p.m. on July 24. The last quarter moon is on July 27. The waning crescent passes Mars in the dawn on July 30, and much brighter Jupiter on July 31.
Mercury is visible low in the western twilight for the first two weeks of July, but never gets very high for us. But in the southern hemisphere, this will be their best chance to observe it in 2024. Venus is still too close to the Sun to spot yet. Mars is in the morning sky in Taurus, south of the famed Pleiades cluster. Jupiter is now back in the dawn, north of the Hyades cluster in Taurus. This is a great photo op.
While the naked eye, dark-adapted by several minutes away from any bright lights, is a wonderful instrument to stare up into deep space, far beyond our own Milky Way, binoculars are better for spotting specific deep sky objects. For a detailed map of northern hemisphere skies, visit skymaps.com.
High overhead is the Big Dipper, and good scouts know to use the pointers at the end of the bowl to find Polaris, the pole star, staying 30 degrees high in our night sky all year long. By midnight, the earth’s rotation will carry the dipper low in the northwest sky, yet Polaris will still be in the same place. This was critical to early navigators like Columbus, for if they kept Polaris at the same altitude in their northern sky, they knew they were sailing due west, leading him to the new world.
Arcturus is currently the brightest star overhead, but that can change any day now. To the northeast of Arcturus is the northern crown, Corona Borealis. Its brightest jewel is Gemma (or Alphecca, here), in the center of the crown, but below the eastern edge of the curve near epsilon Corona Borealis, the dwarf nova T Corona Borealis is due to flare 100X brighter any time. Here is the finder chart to see if it has flared yet. At its maximum light, it should outshine Gemma for at least a few days, based on previous explosions seen in 1217, 1787, and 1866. Stay tuned!
Spike south to Spica, the hot blue star in Virgo, then curve to Corvus the Crow. North of Corvus, in the arms of Virgo, is where our large scopes will show members of the Virgo Supercluster, a swarm of over a thousand galaxies about 50 million light-years distant.
To the east, Hercules is well up, with the nice globular cluster M-13 marked on your sky map and visible in binocs. The brightest star of the northern hemisphere, Vega (from Carl Sagan’s novel and movie, “Contact”), rises in the northeast as twilight deepens. Twice as hot as our Sun, it appears blue-white, like most bright stars.
Northeast of Lyra is Cygnus, the Swan, flying down the Milky Way. Its bright star Deneb, at the top of the “northern cross” is one of the luminaries of the Galaxy. South of Deneb, on a dark clear night, note the “Great Rift”, a dark nebula in front of our solar system as we revolve around the core of the Milky Way in the Galactic Year of 250 million of our own years. The star at the south end of the Northern Cross is one of my favorites, Albireo, the “gator star”, a notable orange and blue double at 20X.
Altair is the third bright star of the summer triangle. It lies in Aquila the Eagle, and is much closer than Deneb; it lies within about 13 light-years of our Sun.
Just a little east of the Scorpion’s tail is the teapot shape of Sagittarius, which lies toward the center of the Milky Way. From a dark sky site, you can pick out the fine stellar nursery, M-8, the Lagoon Nebula, like a cloud of steam coming out of the teapot’s spout. This view of our home galaxy stretching overhead is for about midnight on July evenings, looking from the South to overhead. My favorite way of learning the many deep sky objects (open and globular clusters, bright nebulae like the Lagoon, and the many dark nebulae that make up the “Dark Constellations” of the Inca) is to use low-power binoculars (I prefer 8x40s because they are light and easier to hold steady with my Parkinson’s, but younger folks with a better grip on life will find 10x50’s will show fainter objects and at high power) and lean back in a lawn chair (also an ideal way to observe meteor showers like August’s Perseids with just your naked eyes) and slowly sweep up and down the Galaxy, marking off the deep sky objects on your SkyMap as you spot them. Note the back of the SkyMap has a fine selection of the best deep sky objects to spot with the naked eye, binocs, and small scopes to help you find your way across the Galaxy this summer.
The Escambia Amateur Astronomers return to Casino Beach for our Pavilion Stargaze Season on the first quarter moon. Meet us south of the famed Beach Ball Water Tower and bring your smartphone to image the Sun (before sunset with our solar scopes), Moon, and constellations. We have free star charts and will show you what’s up. The gazes, if clear skies permit, will be August 16-17.
For deep skies with much less light pollution, on the weekends of the third quarter moon we continue our cooperation with the Florida State Parks at Big Lagoon State Park. Our gazes for best imaging of the Milky Way, constellations, and other galaxies are on July 27. Bring your smartphones and we will teach you how to use apps like Nocturne to image the constellations, the Milky Way, meteors, satellites, and hopefully, more auroras!
Our planetarium show for July 12th at PSC’s Space and Science Theatre is “Apollo and Beyond” at 6 p.m. Be sure to get your tickets at Purple Pass. The last two shows have been sold out! Tickets are only $6, and clear skies permitting, sun spotting and lunar observing will follow the show.
For more information on the Escambia Amateur Astronomers, join us on Facebook (3,000+ members) at “Escambia Amateur Astronomers”, visit our website at eaaa.net or contact our sponsor, Lauren Rogers at Pensacola State at lrogers@pensacolastate.edu. You can also schedule special gazes at the Airport Approach at Langley and McAlister by calling (850) 291-9334.