Some highlights for the night sky in July 2006

Saturday 1 July 2006

• About 1 hour after sunset Mercury may be seen on WNW horizon
• Look for Saturn about 10 degrees upper left of Mercury
• Look for Mars about 7 degrees upper left of Saturn

Monday 3 July 2006

• First quarter Moon (located this evening to the lower right of Spica)
• Alpha Libra is to the left of Jupiter which is about 13 degrees to to the upper left of Spica

Tuesday 4 July 2006

• After sunset look for Moon roughly between Spica and Jupiter
• Happy Independence Day USA

Saturday 8 July 2006

• After sunset look for Moon between the tail of Scorpius and Antares itself
• Southernmost moonset occurs in SW early morning 9 July

Sunday 9 July 2006

• About 1.5 hours after sunset Moon will be in "Teapot"
• Before sunrise, Moon sets as south as she gets

Tuesday 11 July 2006

• About 1 hour after sunset look for Mars between Saturn and Regulus
• Saturn is low on horizon

Friday 14 July 2006

• Before sunrise look for Venus
• After sunset look for Mars and Regulus

Sunday 16 July 2006

• After sunset look for Mars and Regulus, less than 4 degrees apart
• In the middle of the night the Moon approaches last quarter

Monday 17 July 2006

• Last quarter Moon
• After sunset Mars and Regulus are within 3 degrees of each other

Thursday 20 July 2006

• Before sunrise, Moon occults part of Pleiades
• After sunset, Mars and Regulus about 1 degree apart

Saturday 22 July 2006

• After sunset Mars and Regulus less than 1 degree apart (closest approach)
• Look for northernmost Moon just above Venus before sunrise

Tuesday 25 July 2006

• New Moon at 12:31 AM
• Before sunrise, look for Venus near Eta Gemini

Thursday 27 July 2006

• About one hour before sunrise look for Venus near Epsilon Gemini
• In the middle of the night look for meteors from Delta Aquarid meteor shower

Monday 31 July 2006

• About one hour before sunrise look for Mercury near horizon about 7 degrees below Venus
• After sunset, Spica is near crescent Moon and Jupiter near Alpha Librae

Good skywatching resources

• The Messier Objects list
• Abrams Planetarium Skywatcher's Diary (source of the daily events)
• SkyMap software (used to make the maps)
• The Nearest Stars
• The Brightest Stars
• Skymaps dot com (free monthly star maps)
• Planetarium Software
• About the GMU observatory

John Avellone's provided web sites

• FCPS/NOVAC EarthDial Web Cam at TJHSST Planetarium
• EarthDial Project Beta test webpage