Night Sky
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courtesy Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium
The southern skies host the red star Antares marking the “heart” of the Scorpion, with claws stretching to the west, and its tail right along the horizon. To its left, crossing the “river of light” known as the Milky Way, is the “teapot” in Sagittarius. Climbing higher in the east, the Milky Way is surrounded by three bright stars forming the Summer Triangle, seen overhead by midnight. The Big Dipper sits high in the northwest, looking like its British name, “the Plough”. The morning parade of planets continues, though Saturn rises before midnight, and Jupiter does the same by July 20. Mars brightens between Jupiter and Venus, which remains low in the east. Mercury is lost in the Sun’s glare. The first quarter Moon is on July 6; the full “Buck” Moon is on July 13; the last quarter Moon is on July 20; and the new Moon is on July 28.
