Title: AOL Podcast for July 2006
Author: Kelly beatty
Company: Hewlett-Packard Company

Sky Tour Podcast for July 2023

This month’s episode is sponsored by Celestron, manufacturer of high-quality telescopes and an industry leader in developing exciting optical products with revolutionary technologies.
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I’m Kelly Beatty of Sky & Telescope magazine, and tonight we’re going on a tour of the stars and planets that you’ll see overhead during July. This month we’ll take the measure of Earth’s orbit; spot the inner planets; take a poke at a celestial scorpion; and track down a large but virtually unknown consteallation. So grab your curiosity, and come along on this month’s Sky Tour.
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Hey, it’s summertime! — at least here in the Northern Hemisphere. Long, warm days — and short, warm nights. You’d be surprised how many people think it’s hotter now because Earth is closer to the Sun. Nope, that’s not it. In fact, on July 6th our little planet will be its farthest away — just over 94½ million miles, not the average 93 million. Nope, the reason it’s hot right now is that the Northern Hemisphere is tipped toward the Sun. And that means Earth’s bottom half is tipped away from the Sun — so right now it’s mid-winter in Australia.
True darkness is fleeting in summertime, especially at higher latitudes. Here in the Boston area, for example, the last bit of twilight lingers in the west until after 10 o’clock, leaving just 5 hours of complete darkness to revel in the star-spangled night before dawn begins to creep up in the east. At more southerly latitudes you get a bit more nighttime, but not much. So let’s make the most of the darkness we have, and to do that we’ll need to know the Moon’s whereabouts this month.
Full Moon comes early, on July 3rd. It’s traditionally called the full Buck Moon by Native Americans because at this time of year buck deer start to sprout a new set of antlers from their foreheads. And, because thunderstorms are common in summer months, this is also called the Full Thunder Moon. The last-quarter Moon occurs on July 10th and new Moon on the 17th. Soon thereafter the lunar crescent will edge up higher and fatter in the western sky after sunset, and first quarter Moon is July 25th. So your darkest evenings for stargazing are during the middle of the month. 
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Earth’s two closest planetary neighbors are doing their final dance over in the west after sunset this month. To spot them, you’ll need to find a vantage point with an unobstructed view in that direction. You can start looking almost as soon as sundown. Look to the left of the sunset point for Venus. A half hour after the Sun disappears, Venus is above the horizon by not much more than the width of your clenched fist held at arm’s length. This planet is quite bright, but its dazzle is diminished somewhat due to the twilight around it.
Wait until twilight deepens, and you’ll find Mars just a few degrees to the upper left of Venus. But, boy, you’ll have to work harder to see it — Venus is hundreds of times brighter. For a couple of days around July 10th, Mars will pair closely with the bright star Regulus, which matches the Red Planet’s brightness pretty closely. Both Venus and Mars are losing altitude with each passing sunset. Venus is dropping faster, but Mars is getting fainter. Which one will you lose sight of first?
Now later this month some surprise guests will join the stage just above the western horizon. Mercury is slowly climbing up in the evening twilight. This won’t be a particularly good showing for Mercury, and your best chance to see it will be at month’s end. Or you can hope for very clear skies after sunset on July 19th, when a razor-thin crescent Moon will point the way to Mercury about 5ׄ° to its lower right. But whenever you search for fast-moving Mercury, don’t wait too long — start looking no later than 30 to 45 minutes after sunset. By about an hour later, all three planets will have sunk from view.
Now, you might be wondering where to find the two giant planets Jupiter and Saturn. They are visible right now, but to spot them you’ll have to stay up past midnight — Jupiter will be just rising in the east, with Saturn higher up to its upper right in the southeast. Or of course you could get up really early, before sunrise. But don’t worry: in a couple of months both of these planets will return to view in the evening sky. 
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It’s time for some stargazing! After evening twilight fades, swing your gaze to the left from the sunset point, well past Venus, Mars, and Regulus, until you find a decently bright star about two fists high in the southwest. That’s Spica [SPEE-kuh], or sometimes called SPY-kuh, the main star in the constellation Virgo. She is lying sideways in the sky, with her head toward the right and her legs toward left. Spica is Latin for “ear of grain,” and Virgo is often depicted holding stalks of grain in her hand. 
High above Virgo is dazzling Arcturus, the alpha star for the kite-shaped constellation Boötes [bow-OO-tays], meaning herdsman or plowman. Arcturus, which marks the kite’s tail, is the fourth-brightest star in the nighttime sky. That’s mostly because it’s relatively close by, only 37 light-years away. Arcturus means “guardian of the bear,” so called because it’s not far from Ursa Major, the Big Bear, farther north.
Now return to Spica and keep scanning to the left until you’re facing south, and you’ll encounter another star that’s about the same brightness. That’s Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius. This star’s reddish hue is strikingly similar to that of Mars, and that resemblance gives the star its name. Antares means, literally, “rival of Ares,” which is the Greek name for Mars. Antares seems to have an even deeper hue because we in the Northern Hemipshere usually see it low in the sky, where the atmosphere reddens it — just as the dense air low down reddens the setting Sun. Compare the colors of Antares and Spica, which is an icy white. Can you see a difference? They’re different colors because the surface of Spica is close to 40,000° Fahrenheit. That’s more than three times hotter than Antares — or our Sun, for that matter. A sizzling summertime star, for sure.
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Perhaps more than in any other constellation, the stars of Scorpius really do look like their namesake. Let’s trace out its shape — and here’s where having a clear southern view becomes important. Antares is the heart of our scorpion. And close by, to its upper right and lower left, are two medium-bright stars representing its body. Less than one fist to Antares’ upper right are three stars marking the head. To their right, are the stars of Libra [LEE-bruh], the Balance Scales, but in ancient times these were perceived as the critter’s claws. We talked about Libra quite a bit last month, remember? 
Trailing from Antares to the lower left is a curving string of stars that form the Scorpion’s tail. They arc down and then turn upward, ending in a close-spaced pair of stars at the stinger end. These are sometimes called the Cat’s Eyes by amateur astronomers. The farther south you live in North America or Europe, the easier it is to see the whole tail and stinger.
Scorpius also harbors one of the few star clusters that can be seen easily without binoculars or a telescope. It’s just to the upper left of the stinger, spaced by about the width of your middle three fingers. This star cluster is the seventh entry in the catalog of 18th-century French astronomer Charles Messier, so it’s usually called Messier 7 or M7. But the ancient Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy had cataloged it 1,600 years before Messier did, describing it as a “cloudy star behind the sting of the Scorpion.” So it’s sometimes known as Ptolemy’s Cluster. You might have trouble seeing M7 if your skies are awash with light pollution or summer haze, but binoculars should show it with ease and resolve it into a swarm of individual stars.
Look just to the upper left of M7 — or maybe it’s easier to look three fists to the left of Antares. This puts you in the constellation Sagittarius, the Archer. Most skywatchers don’t see someone slinging arrows here. Instead, look for a grouping of medium bright stars, about the size of your clenched fist, that trace out the shape of a Teapot. The best time for seeing this is around midnight, when the Teapot is due south and highest in the sky. Anyway, it’s tipped toward the right, as if pouring into the tail of Scorpius, with its spout at lower right and its handle at upper left. Now, just above the Teapot’s handle and a bit to the left are three stars in a flat triangle that skywatchers call the Teaspoon. This little spoon’s handle is marked by two dim stars a little to the upper left. 
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There’s one more constellation I want to show you tonight. It’s a big one, 11th in size among all 88 modern constellations. And yet you’ve probably never heard of it. It’s called Ophiuchus [oh-phee-YOU-cus], which in ancient Greek meant “the serpent holder,” and it’s in plain sight every dark, clear evening this month.
Now, you’re not going to recognize some guy holding snakes among the stars, though apparently ancient Greek skywatchers did. None of its stars are particularly bright. Instead, my advice is to look for something kind of like a giant space capsule, with a broad bottom and pointy top. Let’s start by finding Antares in Scorpius. Now slide your gaze upward by about 1½ fists. You’re looking for three medium-bright stars that form a diagonal row, angled from upper right to lower left and about two fists across. Here’s a tip: The one at upper right is actually stars close together. This is the base of my space capsule; they also mark the Serpent Holder’s midsection.
Go above that by nearly three fists to find the capsule’s pointy top. This star is named Rasalhague 
[RAS-ul-HA-gwee], which translates from Arabic as “head of the serpent holder.” Pretty obvious, right? Look for two more stars to this star’s lower right and left, which mark his mythical shoulders. There’s not much in between this triangle-shaped trio and the base. By the way, the constellation Serpens, the serpent, extends to the left and right of this basic shape, trying desperately to slither out of his firm grasp. As with many of these ancient constellations, to recognize Ophiuchus and Serpens you’ll have to use your imagination liberally.
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That’s about it for this month. If you want more tips for viewing the night sky, check out “Sky at a Glance” on our website, which offers great star- and planet-gazing activities on a day-by-day basis.
If you haven’t already subscribed, you can find Sky Tour on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen. And please leave a rating or review! I’d love to have other stargazers find this show. 
And if you want to explore the solar system and universe more deeply, please do check out the full line of binoculars and telescopes available at Celestron.com.
Sky Tour is a production of Sky & Telescope, a division of the American Astronomical Society, and is produced by me, Kelly Beatty.
Join me next month, when we’ll sit back and enjoy one of the very best meteor showers of the year. Until then, I wish you Clear Skies.