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Tuesday, July 16, 2019

 

The Sky This Week - Thursday July 18 to Thursday July 25

The Last Quarter Moon is Thursday, July 25. 50th anniversary of Apollo Moon landings, Saturday, July 20. Mars is just visible low in the evening twilight at the beginning of the week then is lost in the twilight.  Jupiter is easily visible as the brightest object in the evening skies. Saturn, just past opposition, is high in the late evening skies.

The Last Quarter Moon is Thursday, July 25.  The Moon is at apogee, when it is furthest from the Earth, on the 21st.

Sky at 18:54 ACST (90 minutes after sunset)on Saturday, July 20 looking east as seen from Adelaide. Jupiter is past opposition, and high above the eastern horizon with the Moon nearby. Saturn is below the pair and just past opposition.

The left upper insert inset shows the telescopic
view of Jupiter at this time. Europa is about to transit the disk of Jupiter. The left lower insert is the telescopic view of Saturn at the same magnification.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia 90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen.


Sky at 20:00 ACST on Saturday, July 20 looking east as seen from Adelaide.The Moon is reasonably high above the horizon.  As this is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing try looking for the apollo 11 landing site.

The inset is the telescopic/binocular view at this time. The Apollo landing site is indicated with a star, near a promontory not far from an obvious crater chain.


Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time, click to embiggen.






Venus is lost in the morning twilight and will return to the evening sky in September.

Mercury  is lost in the twilight returning to the morning sky next month.

Jupiter  Jupiter is now well past opposition. However, it is still well worth observing. Jupiter is easily visible as the brightest object in the north-eastern/northern sky (aside from the Moon) and is located just below the distinctive constellation of Scorpius and the bright red star Antares. It is visible all evening long and is a good telescope target in the evening, being highest above the northern horizon around 9:30 pm local time.

Mars is in Cancer and very close to the horizon at the beginning of the week then is lost in the twilight.

Saturn  climbs was at opposition on the 10th, when it was visible all night long. Saturn is below Jupiter and just below the "handle" of the "teapot of Sagittarius. It is best for
 telescopic viewing from just around 9 pm local time until the early morning and is highest above the northern horizon, when it is idea for telescopic imaging, shortly after midnight.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/

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