SkyEye

Welcome to SkyEye, your guide to this month's celestial events.

July 2009

All times and dates are given in Universal Time (UT).
Nightly darkness estimates are calculated for 45° N and 30° S.
Like total solar eclipses, lunar occultation events can be seen only from limited regions on Earth (and sometimes not at all if the occultation takes place during daylight hours). However, the Moon will appear close in the sky to its "target" for some hours either side of the actual occultation, regardless of where you are.

Date		Event
1	Wed
2	Thu
3	Fri	Earth at aphelion
4	Sat	Moon occults Antares: visible from about 0930 UT in Hawaii.
5	Sun
6	Mon
7	Tue	Full Moon at the farthest apogee of the year
7	Tue	This penumbral lunar eclipse is so faint that it is invisible to the naked eye.
8	Wed
9	Thu
10	Fri
11	Sat
12	Sun
13	Mon
14	Tue	Mercury at superior conjunction
15	Wed	Last Quarter Moon
16	Thu
17	Fri
18	Sat	Moon occults the Pleiades: visible from about 0000 UT in northwestern Africa, southeastern Europe and the Middle East.
19	Sun
20	Mon
21	Tue	Moon at the closest perigee of the year; very high tides can be expected since perigee occurs only hours before New Moon.
22	Wed	New Moon
22	Wed	Several major Chinese cities lie in the path of the total solar eclipse as it travels from India out into the Pacific Ocean.
23	Thu
24	Fri
25	Sat
26	Sun
27	Mon
28	Tue	Light from the First Quarter Moon should cause little interference with the Delta Aquariids.
29	Wed
30	Thu
31	Fri	Moon occults Antares: visible from about 1430 UT in Pakistan, India and southeastern Asia.

The Solar System

The word planet is derived from the Greek word for "wanderer." Unlike the background stars, planets seem to move around the sky, keeping mostly to a narrow track called the ecliptic, the path of the Sun across the stars. Dwarf planets and small solar-system bodies including comets, are not so constrained, often moving far above or below the ecliptic.

Sun: Gemini -> Cancer
The Earth reaches its farthest point from the Sun on 3 July. The date of aphelion can range from 2 July to 6 July.
Mercury: Taurus -> Gemini -> Cancer -> Leo
Low in the east at sunrise and descending, Mercury disappears after a few days and is at superior conjunction on 14 July. It reappears late in the month in the west after sunset and begins to climb sharply for southern hemisphere observers.
Venus: Taurus -> Orion
Although the "morning star" is beginning its slow descent towards the eastern horizon as seen from the southern hemisphere, it is still climbing higher into the dawn sky for viewers in northern latitudes.
Mars: Aries -> Taurus
The red planet continues to rise a little earlier every night. Still a morning sky object, it appears in the east an hour or two after midnight.
Jupiter: Capricornus
The largest planet in the solar system is heading towards opposition next month so it's rising during the early evening hours. It has its second close encounter of the year with Neptune around mid-month.
Saturn: Leo
The ringed planet sets just an hour after Jupiter rises. It is getting slightly dimmer as it approaches solar ring-plane crossing next month.
Uranus: Pisces
Uranus rises just as its neighbour Saturn sets.
Neptune: Capricornus
A small telescope is necessary to view the most distant planet in the solar system. With opposition occurring next month, Neptune rises just after sunset and is found in the company of the much brighter Jupiter.

The Celestial Sphere

Constellations are patterns of stars in the sky. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recognises 88 different constellations. The brightest stars as seen from the Earth are easy to spot but do you know their proper names? With a set of binoculars you can look for fainter objects such as nebulae and galaxies or some of the closest stars to the Sun.

Descriptions of the sky for observers in both the northern and southern hemispheres are available for the following times this month. Subtract one hour from your local time if summer (daylight savings) time is in effect.

Local Time	Northern Hemisphere	Southern Hemisphere
1730 hours (1830 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
1930 hours (2030 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
2130 hours (2230 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
2330 hours (0030 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0130 hours (0230 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0330 hours (0430 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0530 hours (0630 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S

For More Information...

Consult our online glossary for non-technical explanations of many of the astronomical terms used in these pages.
Blue moons, eclipses, the dates of Easter and much more can be found at the Interactive Astronomy Pages.
For more information about the objects and events described in SkyEye, visit these astronomy-related sites.

Credits

Much of this information can be found in this month's issue of your favourite amateur astronomy magazine available in your local bookshop. Another excellent source is the current edition of the Astronomical Calendar by Guy Ottewell and published by the Universal Workshop at Furman University.

The SkyEye banner features a view of Saturn from its satellite Iapetus and is courtesy of NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. Of all the major satellites of Saturn, Iapetus is the only one with a significant orbital inclination. Thus, whilst the rings appear nearly edge-on from all of the other major satellites, from Iapetus they are usually seen at a tilt. This image was taken during the Cassini-Huygens mission on 10 September 2007 and consists of 15 red, green and blue spectral filter images.