Astroblog: Thursday July 13 to Thursday July 20

Monday, July 10, 2023

Thursday July 13 to Thursday July 20

The New Moon is Tuesday, July 18. Saturn is now rising around 8:30 pm local time. Jupiter is prominent in the morning sky. Venus is prominent from the evening twilight to early evening. On the 15^th Venus, the bright star Regulus and Mars make an attractive line up with Venus and Mars almost equidistant from Regulus. Venus is at its closest to Regulus on on the 18th. On the 19th Mercury is near the thin crescent Moon.

The New Moon is Tuesday, July 18. The Moon is at apogee, when it is furthest from the Earth, on the 20th.

Evening sky on Saturday, July 15 as seen from Adelaide at 23:00 ACST, Saturn is well above the eastern horizon. The inset is the telescopic view of Saturn at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time.

Morning sky on Saturday, July 15 as seen from Adelaide at 05:52 ACST, (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Jupiter is above the horizon near the Hyades and Pleiades with the Moon close by. The inset is the telescopic view of Jupiter at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise).

Evening sky on Saturday, July 15 as seen from Adelaide at 18:55 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Venus, Mars and the bright star Regulus are roughly equidistant. The inset is the telescopic view of Venus at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset).

Evening sky on Thursday, July 20 as seen from Adelaide at 18:23 ACST, 60 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mars, Venus and Regulus make an attractive lineup with the Moon and Mercury below, you will need a level, unobscured horizon to see Mercury at its best.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset).

Whole sky on Saturday, July 15 as seen from Adelaide at 18:55 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mars is visible above the north western horizon near the bright star Regulus and Venus is just below.

Scorpius is readily visible in in the east.

Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are another wealth of binocular objects to discover. With the Moon new it will be an excellent time to see them.

Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

Mercury returns to the evening twilight and is close to the thin crescent Moon on the 19th. You will need a level, unobscured horizon to see see them at their best.

Venus is coming close to the bright star Regulus. On the 15^th Venus, Regulus and Mars make an attractive line up with Venus and Mars almost equidistant from Regulus. Venus is at its closest to Regulus on on the 18th.

Mars is leaving Regulus and Venus behind. On the 15^th Venus, Regulus and Mars make an attractive line up with Venus and Mars almost equidistant from Regulus.

Jupiter is prominent in the morning sky.

Saturn climbs higher in the morning skies and is rising around 8:30 pm local time.

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.

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

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/

Labels: weekly sky