The up coming month of July is a good month to be outdoors at night looking at the heavens. There are many planets and constellations to be seen.

Lets go over some of the planets that can be seen in the month of July. Jupiter is in the southeastern sky just above the tree line and can be seen just before dawn. Mars (the red planet) is in the western sky and Saturn is in the western just north of Mars a little and just above the tree line and can be seen just after dark. All of these can be seen with the naked eye.

There are 9 very bright (First magnitude or brighter)sky objects in July. In order of brightness they are; Jupiter, Arcturus, Vega, Altair, Saturn, Antares, Spica, Deneb and Regulus. Vega, Altair and Deneb form the summer triangle, which can be seen just east of center sky most of the darkness hours.

Some constellations that are visible in the month of July are; Leo, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Sagittarius, Scorpius, Libra, Virgo, Hercules, Draco all of these are visible at various time and nights in the month of July.

The Full moon comes during the over night hours of the 17th and is called the hay moon. The American Indians called this moon the buck moon. The best stargazing will be the 2 weeks before the Full moon and the 2 week after the Full moon.

Anyone who would like to discuss night sky reference materials can contact me at chuck@cnsoutdoors.com