What's Up?

This page shows a brief summary of what interesting things we can see in the sky this month.  

A more detailed version of 'What's Up' this month is available as a downloadable Word document right at the bottom of this page. 

Not a good month for observing, Still hardly any darkness. Concentrate on the Moon or Jupiter and Saturn, which are now present after midnight. In the south there is still the great star cloud in Sagittarius, which is quite stunning in binoculars, but unfortunately, not from Walsall, as it's in the Birmingham glow. Instead, try a holiday on the south coast, the sky's darker. 

On Tuesday, July 13th , there is a close (0.5 degree) conjunction of Mars and Venus, which is so low down it can only be seen from a hilltop, so the club (weather permitting) will be on Barr Beacon with telescopes to observe this from 9:00pm till late, we will also see a 3-day old thin crescent moon and an asteroid. Bring Binoculars…

The Sun

July 3rd, is Aphelion, Earth is furthest from Sun for the year (94,500,000 miles).

The Moon

The phases of the Moon are as follows:

• Last Quarter - 1st July
• New - 10th July
• First Quarter - 17th July
• Full Moon - 24th July

Darkest nights for observing, due to lack of moonlight, will be from 5th to the 15th July.

Mercury is visible in the morning sky, best on 15th July.

Venus is still visible in the West for an hour after sunset.

Mars is becoming difficult to observe above the sunset but close to Venus on 13th July.

Jupiter is rising at 23:49pm on the 1st of July and 21:45pm on the 31st of July.

Saturn is still close to Jupiter and rising 40 minutes earlier.

Uranus and Neptune are both morning objects rising at 01:45am and 00:25am on the 1st of July.

Uranus and Neptune are both morning objects rising at 01:45am and 00:25am on the 1st of July. 

Deep Sky 

• M57 the Ring Nebula in Lyra between Gamma and Beta Lyrae, not at all difficult. 
• Albireo, the "beak" of the Swan (Cygnus) is a beautiful blue and orange double.
• M5 in Serpens caput and M13 in Hercules are the best Globular clusters in the Northern hemisphere, visible in binoculars, better in telescopes, the bigger the better.
• The Coma Cluster is easily  visible to the naked eye but best in low power binoculars, it will just fill the field of 7 x 50 binoculars, enjoy a slow tour.
• M10 and M12 are two more globulars in Ophiuchus but difficult being low down. 
• The milky way cuts the sky in half from North to South passing through Cassiopeia and Cygnus to Sagittarius and Scorpius in the south follow it with binoculars, pausing to enjoy the many knots and clusters of stars, many of which do not have names.