July Night Skies
A brief overview of what to see in the sky with the unaided eye during
July evenings:

Stars and Constellations
● Scorpius is transiting the meridian during July evenings. The
southern part of the constellation is low in the southern sky and
might not be visible from suburban neighbourhoods, but is easily
visible in dark skies and from lakeshore locations. The bright red
star Antares is also low in the southern sky, but near the northern
end of the constellation and easy to find even in light-polluted skies
● The Summer Triangle of 3 bright stars (Altair, Vega and Deneb)
and their constellations (Aquila, Lyra and Cygnus) is overhead
during the evenings
● The summer Milky Way extends north-to-south through Cygnus
and Aquila, high in the eastern sky during evenings

Planets
● Mercury appears low in the evening sky after sunset during early July and reaches conjunction with the sun later in July
● Venus is visible low in the northeastern pre-dawn sky
● Mars is visible low in the western sky after sunset in the Leo constellation
● Jupiter rises during morning twilight in the Gemini constellation
● Saturn rises near midnight in early July and during late evening later in July and appears in the     southeastern sky during early morning in the
  Pisces constellation

Moon Phases
● First Quarter Moon July 2, 15:30 EDT
● Full Moon July 10, 16:37 EDT
● Last Quarter Moon July 17, 20:38 EDT
● New Moon July 24, 15:11 EDT

Noteworthy Sky Events
●July 3: Earth at aphelion (farthest from the sun during the year)

●July 29-30: South delta Aquarid meteor shower

Sky Resources Online
Some website resources for sky charts, weekly sky events, and more information:
●    astrogeo.ca/skylights
●    www.heavens-above.com
●    In-the-sky.org
●    www.skyandtelescope.org
●    www.skymaps.com
 

Star Chart for mid-July, mid-evening (courtesy of www.heavens-above.com):