Sky and Telescope - July 2017 - 47

* To ﬁnd out what's visible in the sky

Mars

from your location, go to skypub.com/
almanac.

December
solstice

NIGHT

Uranus

Neptune rises in the late evening in
Aquarius and is highest in the south
in morning twilight. The dim planet is
moving slowly westward and lies about
2° east of Lambda (λ) Aquarii in July.
Uranus, in Pisces, rises in the middle
of the night and is still in the east as
dawn begins. See http://is.gd/urnep/ for
ﬁnder charts for Uranus and Neptune.

March
equinox

Jupiter

Venus

Saturn

Sept.
equinox

Sun

Mercury
Neptune

June
solstice

Earth

ORBITS OF THE PLANETS

DAW N
Venus rises about 2½ hours before the
Sun as July opens and 3 hours before the
Sun as July closes. Its altitude an hour
before sunrise is already almost 20°.
This month, the brilliant planet
fades perceptibly from magnitude -4.2
to -4.0 as its gibbous phase increases
from 63% to 74% sunlit and its disk
shrinks from 18″ to 15″.
On July 5th, Venus beams about 7°
lower left of the Pleiades. During the
next week it skirts the Hyades, passing
just 3° north of Aldebaran on July 13th
and 14th. Venus approaches M35 in
Gemini as July ends.

Dawn, July 19-21

Pleiades

45 minutes before sunrise
Moon
July 19

The curved arrows show each planet's movement during July. The outer planets don't change
position enough in a month to notice at this scale.

MARS
Mars is at conjunction with the Sun
on July 27th - but exactly one year (to
the day) later Mars will be at perihelic
opposition, shining bigger and brighter
than it has at any time since 2003.

E A R TH A N D M O O N
Earth arrives at aphelion, its farthest
point from the Sun in space, at 4 p.m.
EDT on July 3rd. Earth's distance from
the Sun at aphelion is only 3.3% farther
than at perihelion in January.
The waxing gibbous Moon forms
a triangle with Jupiter and Spica on
the evening of July 1st. The nearly full

¢ Contributing Editor FRED SCHAAF
welcomes your letters and comments at
fschaaf@aol.com.

Dusk, July 24 -25

Dusk, July 27-29
1 hour after sunset

30 minutes after sunset

Hyades

Moon
July 29

Denebola

TA U R U S

Moon beams just above Saturn on July
6th. The waning lunar crescent nears
Aldebaran and the Hyades at dawn on
July 19th, and it's about 3° lower right
of Venus the next morning. The waxing
crescent Moon hangs 4° to 5° lower
right of the Mercury-Regulus pairing
about 30 minutes after sunset on July
24th; good luck. It's much easier, about
8° upper left of the pair, the next evening. A thicker lunar crescent curves 3°
above Jupiter on July 28th.

VIRGO
Moon
July 28

Aldebaran
Venus
Spica

Moon
July 20

Jupiter

Moon
July 27

γ Leo

Moon
July 25

a

ORION

Moon
July 21

Regulus
Mercury

Betelgeuse

Looking East

CORVUS

Moon
July 24

Looking West

Looking West-Southwest

s k y a n d t e l e s c o p e .c o m

* J U LY 2 017

47
http://www.skypub.com/almanac http://www.skypub.com/almanac http://www.is.gd/urnep/ http://www.skyandtelescope.com
Sky and Telescope - July 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky and Telescope - July 2017
