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Sunday, July 3
With solely a skinny crescent Moon within the sky, this night is a good time to discover the beautiful Rho Ophiuchi area within the south, located close to — you guessed it — the star Rho (ρ) Ophiuchi in Ophiuchus the Serpent-bearer.
Pull out binoculars or use your small scope to take a tour of the 4°-wide Rho Ophiuchi area by first finding Antares, the intense pink coronary heart of Scorpius. From there, look about 1.3° north to seek out the star 22 Scorpii, which sits on the western fringe of the darkish nebula Barnard 44. Darkish nebulae are clouds of chilly mud that block starlight from any suns sitting behind them, so they seem as darkish swaths of sky the place there are few stars. B44 is roughly 6.5° lengthy, bordered on its jap edge by 24 Ophiuchi.
Rho Ophiuchi itself sits about 3° north-northwest of Antares. This star itself is a superb small scope goal, because it’s a binary system of two Fifth-magnitude yellow stars separated by about 3″. Plus, the reflection nebula IC 4604 surrounds this stellar pair, lending the area round them a delicate glow.
Dawn: 5:36 A.M.
Sundown: 8:32 P.M.
Moonrise: 9:40 A.M.
Moonset: 11:43 P.M.
Moon Part: Waxing crescent (18%)
Monday, July 4
Earth reaches aphelion, the farthest level from the Solar in its practically (however not fairly) round orbit, at 3 A.M. EDT. At the moment, our planet will sit 94.5 million miles (152 million kilometers) from the Solar.
Let’s have a good time Independence Day with some fireworks. NGC 6946 is often known as the Fireworks Galaxy, because of the big variety of supernovae astronomers have noticed inside it — eight within the final 100 years or so. This face-on spiral sits about 22 million light-years away within the far northern reaches of Cygnus, proper on the constellation’s border with Cepheus. The excessive variety of supernovae inform us that, along with plenty of star deaths, there have to be plenty of star births on this galaxy as nicely. Thus, astronomers have categorised NGC 6946 as a starburst galaxy.
Though this galaxy is cataloged as magnitude 9, its mild is unfold out over an space spanning 11′ by 10′. Which means it seems comparatively faint and also you’ll need as giant a telescope as you may handle to see it nicely. To seek out the Fireworks Galaxy, look 2.1° southwest of magnitude 3.4 Eta (η) Cephei, which itself sits just below 4° southwest of Alderamin, Cepheus’ alpha star.
Dawn: 5:37 A.M.
Sundown: 8:32 P.M.
Moonrise: 10:42 A.M.
Moonset: —
Moon Part: Waxing crescent (27%)
Tuesday, July 5
Rising within the hour earlier than midnight, Saturn is completely poised for both late-night or early-morning observing. The latter is admittedly greatest, because the ringed planet climbs highest within the hours main as much as daybreak.
Pull out your scope to take pleasure in this beautiful planet in superb element. Saturn’s disk now spans 18″ and is surrounded by its well-known rings, which stretch some 42″ throughout. They’re tilted simply lower than 13° to our line of sight — this angle will improve barely by the autumn, however then steadily lower once more till 2025, when they are going to seem edge-on.
Saturn is flanked tonight by a number of moons. Titan, the brightest at magnitude 8.5, sits some 45″ northeast of the planet. Tethys and Dione, each magnitude 10, are about 30″ west-southwest of Saturn, whereas Rhea (additionally tenth magnitude) is simply over 1′ east-southeast of Saturn’s disk.
Dawn: 5:37 A.M.
Sundown: 8:32 P.M.
Moonrise: 11:45 A.M.
Moonset: 12:06 A.M.
Moon Part: Waxing crescent (36%)
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