Nightwatch Sheet July 2017
Full Moon: 9th. New Moon; 23rd.
The Night sky on the 16th at 11pm.
Earth at aphelion (furthest point from Sun) on the 3rd. at 152, 092, 503 Km.
Venus is visible in the early part of the month at magnitude -4.2 in the pre-dawn sky. However it soon gets too close to the Sun to be seen.
Jupiter remains in Virgo and shines at magnitude -2.1 at the start of the month fading to -1.9 by the end of the month but it remains the brightest object in the constellation. To the left of Jupiter is the star Spica which shines at magnitude +1. It is the 16th brightest star in the sky. The moon passes north of Jupiter on the 1st and again on the 28th.
Saturn remains in the feint constellation of Ophiuchus and at magnitude 0.1 remains the brightest object in that part of the sky. It is slowly making its way eastwards towards Pisces. On the 7th the Moon is just above Saturn making a handy finder for the ringed planet.
Once you have found Saturn, draw a line to the right of the planet and you will see (if no buildings are in the way!) a lovely red star. This is Antares the brightest star in Scorpius. Sadly Scorpius doesn’t get any higher in the sky but the star is well worth a look. After midnight if you then draw a line left from Antares you might see a teapot shaped group of stars. This forms part of Sagittarius. If you can get away from light pollution have a look at this area with binoculars and you will see a wealth of stars. You are looking towards the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way. In really dark skies you will be able to make out the Milky way with naked eyes!
There is a meteor shower this month; the Delta Aquarids start on the 12th, peak on the 30th and fade away into August. The meteors are feint but with little interference from the moon you may be able to see some of these feint shooting stars. Also, on the 15th the Perseids meteor shower begins. It peaks in August, but keep an eye out for fast, bright meteors.
On This Day…
55 Years Ago - August 11th -12th 1962: Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 (on-board were Andrian G. Nikolayev and Pavel R. Popovich respectively) were launched between 0824 UTC and 0755 UTC from Baikonur. This was the first simultaneous flight of two spacecraft.
August 27th 1962: Mariner 2 was launched by Atlas Agena from Cape Canaveral. This was thefirst successful planetary flyby - passing Venus on December 14th 1962. The Spacecraft then went into orbit around the Sun.
40 Years Ago - August 20 1977: the interplanetary mission Voyager 2 was launched by Titan 3E from Cape Canaveral/
5 Years Ago – August 5th 2012: The Mars Science Laboratory carrying the Curiosity rover touched down on Mars at Gale Crater.
August 25th: Neil Armstrong dies at age 82.
Neil Armstrong Andrian G. Nikolayev Pavel R. Popovich