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2020-07 Chart Front-Neowise

2020-07 Chart Front-Neowise

11:00 pm on July 1 N Comet NEOWISE 10:00 pm on July 15 (7/15) 9:00 pm on August 1

To use this chart: hold the chart in CASSIOPEIA

front of you and turn it so the direction Comet NEOWISE

(7/17) you are facing is at the bottom of the MAJOR

2020

chart. URSA Bright Polaris Comet NEOWISE

(7/20) Medium Bright Stars

ULY

Faint Stars DIPPER

J

LITTLE Scan dark skies Deneb with binoculars: Comet NEOWISE (7/25)

M-6: Buttery Cluster

PEGASUS BIG

M-7: Open cluster DIPPER Vega M-8: Lagoon Comet NEOWISE

Keystone (7/30) M-15: Globular TRIANGLE SUMMER M-13

M-13: Globular star cluster M-15 TES E

LYRA

M-22: Globular star cluster COMA

BOÖ W M-27: Dumbell Nebula BERENICES

Altair Summer is here! It might M-27 not feel like it yet, but the days are now getting Arcturus shorter and the nights longer. This will continue until the rst day of winter Saturn CAPUT SERPENS on December 21. CAUDA From Nashville: M-22 Full Moon July 4 Sunrise Sunset Spica M-8 July 1 5:33 AM 8:08 PM July 15 5:41 AM 8:04 PM M-6

Aug 1 5:54 AM 7:51 PM Last Quarter July 12 M-7

New Moon S July 20 Download monthly star charts and learn First Quarter more about our shows at adventuresci.org July 27 From Dark Skies July 2020 Bright outdoor lighting can make it hard to see all but After Sunset Further to the east of Sagittarius are two planets, Jupiter and the brightest stars. On a clear night, find a dark spot far Saturn. Jupiter is the brighter of the two. If you have binoculars, away from city lights, give your eyes time to adjust to In the early summer, the Big Dipper is easy to find, high in you will be able to see up to four of Jupiter’s largest moons. Observe the dark, and look for even more celestial sights. the northwest after sunset. Connect the dots to imagine over several nights to watch them orbit around their parent planet. a big spoon or ladle high above. If you have trouble steadying your binoculars on Jupiter, try leaning Evenings in the early summer are great for spotting them up against the side of a building or another steady surface. the coursing from Sagittarius and Scorpius, The Big Dipper is not officially a constellation; it’s what through the Summer Triangle and on towards Cassiopeia sometimes call an . It’s a familiar A small telescope not only shows the moons of Jupiter, but also its cloud bands. Jupiter has stripes! the Queen in the northeast. This hazy band of light is the name for this pattern of stars, especially used by bulk of our disc-shaped , as we see it from within. observers in the United States, but it’s not one of the Saturn’s most famous feature is a little harder to see. Most 88 recognized by astronomers worldwide. binoculars aren’t powerful enough to clearly resolve the rings. As you look towards Scorpius and Sagittarius, you are the Great Bear is the official constellation Instead, Saturn may look a little oval in shape. A small telescope looking in the direction of the dense center of the here, but you’ll need dark skies to see its fainter stars. provides a beautiful view of the rings and even the large moon Milky Way Galaxy. Scan with binoculars or a telescope Titan. in this area to find many faint star clusters and nebulae Use the two stars at the end of the Dipper’s bowl to lead throughout this part of the sky. you to Polaris, also known as the North Star. Polaris is Look for our own Moon near Jupiter and Saturn on July 7. not a particularly bright star, but it does remain fixed in Look high overhead for the constellation Hercules. Four the sky throughout the night and throughout the year, As and the other planets orbit around the Sun, the planets stars in Hercules form a trapezoid shape called the When you face the North Star, you’re facing due north. we see appear to move across the constellations over time. Some Keystone, after the top stone in an arch. This time of Polaris is at the end of the handle of the Little Dipper. planets, like Mercury, Venus and , move relatively quickly. year the Keystone can appear directly overhead, from This group of stars is also officially known as Meanwhile, Jupiter and Saturn, being further from the Sun, move our part of the world. Imagine the Keystone holding up the Little Bear. far more slowly. These two planets are now in our early evening the arch of the sky! sky through the rest of the year, and we have a great opportunity Follow the curved handle of the Big Dipper to trace an to track their motions. They will appear to grow closer to each Look near the Keystone for the known ‘arc’ to Arcturus, the orange colored star in Boötes the other over the next several , and by mid-December, they as the Hercules Cluster, or M-13. Using binoculars, you Herdsman. Then speed on to Spica, the single bright star will appear extemely close together, from our vantage here on may be able to spot a round-shaped glow. If that blurry in Virgo the Maiden. Neither of these constellations has Earth. Their closest approach will be on December 21, and you’ll glow doesn’t seem impressive, just remember that it’s a any other bright stars. Even under dark skies away from be able to go out in the early evening to catch this incredible sight. collection of around 300,000 stars, at a distance of over city lights, it’s hard to imagine these mythological figures Mark your calendars! 22,000 light years, at an age of over 11 billion years old. just by connecting the dots. Look to the east for the three bright stars that make up A Look Ahead Comet NEOWISE the Summer Triangle. Viewers with darker skies might As the Earth orbits the Sun throughout the year, the constellations It’s been years since a comet bright enough to see with find the fainter stars that make up the three constellations rise and set just a little bit earlier every day. You won’t see much the unaided eyes has graced our . This , of the Triangle: Cygnus the Swan, Aquila the Eagle, and difference from night to night, but you will over the course of we have a surprise: Comet NEOWISE, named after the the Harp. weeks or months. What we see in today’s pre-dawn sky is a preview orbiting spacecraft that discovered it, is visible right now in the northern sky. You’ll need to find a dark sky away Low in the south is the hook-shaped constellation of the early evening sky in later months. Go out before dawn this from city lights and a low northern horizon clear of trees Scorpius the low in the south. The red star month for a look ahead at the autumn night sky. or buildings. Antares marks the heart of the scorpion. In the hours before dawn, the Summer Triangle is high in the west. From the 10th-14th of July it is low in the northeastern Just to the east of Scorpius is Sagittarius the Archer. To Sagittarius has already set. Autumn constellations such as sky 45 minutes before dawn. Look for bright Venus. ancient civilizations it may have looked like a mythical the Flying Horse and Andromeda the Princess are high overhead. NEOWISE is below and to the left. centaur holding a bow and arrow, but to modern Saturn and Jupiter are ready to set and Mars is high in the south. stargazers it looks a lot more like a teapot. Brilliant Venus is easily visible in the east. It will be the single brightest By the 17th of July it will have moved into the evening point of light in the sky. Look for a very thin crescent Moon near Venus sky, low in the northwest. Face the Big Dipper and look on the morning of the 17th. low to the horizon. By the 25th it will be higher up, below the bowl of the Dipper The later in the month we Desktop planetarium software like the free, open-source go, the fainter the comet will be. Binoculars will help at Stellarium (stellarium.org) can show you more precisely where all stages of the comet’s progress through the sky. night sky objects will be on any date and time, and help you plan your observing. Visit adventuresci.org/starcharts for more about Comet NEOWISE!

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