This is an old revision of the document!
Sky Highlights and NEKAAL Events for JULY 2016
July 4 – New Moon
July 9 – Open House at Farpoint Observatory, 9 pm to ? –> Join us!
July 11 – First Quarter
July 19 – Full Moon
July 26 – Last Quarter
July 28 – General Meeting, Topeka Library, 7 pm. Join us!
PLANETS in July 2016
Evening Sky:
Midnight:
Mars – in southwest
Saturn – in southwest
Neptune – in southeast
Morning Sky:
Uranus – in southeast
Neptune – in south
CONSTELLATIONS well placed in evening during July 2016
North to South, at 9-11 pm:
Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, also the Little Dipper
Draco, the Dragon
Ursa Major, the Big Bear, also the Big Dipper
Hercules, the Strong Man
Corona Borealis, the northern crown, Crown of Ariadne
Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer
Boötes, the Hunter
Libra, the Scales
Scorpio, the Scorpion (see Mars and Saturn there)
Lepus, the Hare
Mercury is now back in the evening sky, low in the west, best late in the month of July, between low Venus and higher Jupiter
No, unfortunately Kansas will not quite be able to see the New Moon occult bright star Aldebaran–we're just a few hundred miles too far north. Still, it should be an interesting apparent conjunction ~ 5 am Friday July 29.
Challenge object of the month: ex-planet Pluto is at its best in July. At magnitude ~ 14 you're going to need at least an 8“ scope, a good eyepiece, and a bit of patience. At least it's warm, so try it now–100 years from now you'll be stuck with finding it in winter.
Best comet of the month: still PANSTARRS C/2013 X1, should be easily visible in binoculars, very low in the southern sky during evening twilight, all month long.
No great meteor showers this month, but there are the delta Aquariids starting July 12-August 23 (New Moon August 2), low in the south. And get ready for the impressive Perseids peaking the night of August 11-12.