Here are some of the highlights of the night sky in July:
- 10:30 PM, western sky – Saturn and Mars coming near the western horizon
- 11 PM, southern sky – Scorpius constellation, with the prominent tail and stinger, the red supergiant Antares marking the scorpion’s heart, and the globular cluster Messier 4 (M4) lying in the star’s vicinity
- 5:30 AM, eastern sky – Venus rises in the east before dawn; Mercury joins Venus on the eastern horizon toward the middle of July
- 11 PM, southern sky – Sagittarius constellation, easy to find because of the striking Teapot asterism, marks the location of our galaxy’s centre (Sagittarius A), and contains a number of interesting deep sky objects, including the Lagoon Nebula (Messier 8), the three-lobed Trifid Nebula (Messier 20), the Omega Nebula (Messier 17), and the bright globular cluster Messier 22 (M22)
- 2 AM, eastern sky – Delta Aquarid meteor shower, peaking on the night of July 28 to 29, with up to 20 small meteors per hour coming from the south-east, with their radiant appearing to lie in Aquarius constellation
Related: July constellations