Thursday July 18 to Thursday July 25

The Full Moon is Sunday, July 21. Mercury is visible in the evening twilight, with Venus low on the horizon below. Mercury comes closer to the bright star Regulus, and is closest on the 25th. Saturn enters the evening sky around 9:30 pm, but is still best in the morning. On the 24th the waning Moon is close to Saturn. In the morning the lineup of planets is Saturn, Mars and Jupiter. Mars is cloning closer to Jupiter, which is below the red star Aldebaran.

The Full Moon is Sunday, July 21.  The Moon is at perigee, when it is closest to the earth, on the 24th.

Western evening sky on Thursday, July 25 as seen from Adelaide at 18:01 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. Mercury is at its closest to the bright star Regulus.

Venus is low on the horizon.

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

Morning sky on Saturday, July 20  as seen from Adelaide at 05:50 ACST, (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Saturn and Mars are readily visible. Mars is coming closer to Jupiter and is above the Pleiades cluster.  Jupiter is below the red star Aldebaran.

 

 

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

 

The eastern sky at 23:00 ACST Wednesday, July 24 with Saturn rising, The waning Moon is close to saturn

 

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 20 as seen from Adelaide at 18:55 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 an is close to Regulus on the 25th.

Venus is low in the evening twilight.

Mars is rising in the morning sky but is heading towards Jupiter.

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

Saturn climbs higher in the late evening sky. On the 24th the waning Moon is close to Saturn.

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/