Thursday July 11 to Thursday July 18

The First Quarter Moon is Sunday, July 14. Mercury is visible in the evening twilight, with Venus low on the horizon below. Mercury remains visible when the sky is fully dark. Saturn enters the evening sky around 10pm, but is still best in the morning. In a telescope Saturn's famous rings are almost edge on. In the morning the lineup of planets is Saturn, Mars and Jupiter. Jupiter is below the red star Aldebaran. On the 16th Mars and Uranus are half a finger-width apart, a nice view in binoculars.

The First Quarter Moon is Sunday, July 14. The Moon is at apogee, when it is furthest from the earth, on the 12th.

Western evening sky on Saturday, July 13 as seen from Adelaide at 18:05 ACST (45 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).   

Mercury is well above the western horizon at the end of civil twilight, and is still visible at astronomical twilight an hour and a half after sunset. Venus is low on the horizon. You will need a level unobstructed horizon to see Venus, and possibly binoculars.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (45 minutes after sunset).

Morning sky on Tuesday, July 16  as seen from Adelaide at 06:22 ACST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Saturn and Mars are readily visible. Mars and Uranus are half a finger-width (0.5°) apart and a nice view in binoculars or medium power telescope eye pieces.  Jupiter is below the red star Aldebaran. The inset is the binocular view of Mars and Uranus.

 

 

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

 

The eastern sky at 23:00 ACST Saturday, July 13 with Saturn rising, the inset shows the telescopic view at the time. (click to embiggen).

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

Whole sky on Saturday, July 13 as seen from Adelaide at 18:51 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen).

Scorpius dominates the Eastern horizon. The Southern Cross is prominent in the Southern sky. Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are a wealth of binocular objects to discover. The fainter clusters are fading with the Moon waxing.

 

 

   

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

 

 

Mercury climbs higher in the evening sky.

Venus is low in the evening twilight.

Mars is rising in the morning sky but is heading towards Jupiter. On the 15th to 17th it is close to Uranus, being very close on the 16th.

Jupiter is rising in the the morning twilight sky. Jupiter is below the red star Aldebaran.

Saturn climbs higher in the late evening sky.

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/