{"id":1275,"date":"2025-06-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=1275"},"modified":"2025-06-30T12:17:44","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T12:17:44","slug":"july-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/july-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"July 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mercury and Mars are nice evening objects at the start of July. Look west at dusk. Mercury is at greatest elongation on the 4th<\/sup> at 25.9\u00b0 east of the sun. It passes right by Asellus Australis that evening. That’s the southern donkey star in Cancer. It’s said to be one of the two donkeys feeding from the manger that is M44, also known as the Beehive Cluster and Praesepe. After that, the messenger planet pulls to the south and heads into the sunset. Inferior conjunction is on the 1st<\/sup> of August. But you’ll lose sight of Mercury early in July in middle and high northern latitudes. Southern hemisphere observers will have an easier time seeing it evening to evening until about a week before the month ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Magnified<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mars starts the month under Leo’s belly. It steadily marches eastward and will be approaching Virgo’s head in the last days of July. It will be very close to Zavijava on August 2nd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Saturn<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saturn is nearly stationary all month alongside Pisces, rising in late evening, earlier each night of course. The ringed planet is nearly stationary because it’s starting the month in direct motion but will go retrograde on the 14th<\/sup>. Planets seem to slow down before changing direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Magnified<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Venus is right of the Pleiades as the planet and asterism rise in the early morning in early July. On the 12th<\/sup>, Venus will be by Ain, the star opposite Aldebaran on the Hyades. Venus speeds along out of Taurus and to the feet of Gemini at the end of the month. It will be on track to pass by Jupiter in the middle of next month. Jupiter spends all month in Gemini, first starting by Tejat in the legs of Castor. That will not be visible to most northern hemisphere observers. But the view of the planet and constellation gets easier as the month goes along and they rise earlier. About 20 days into the month, Jupiter is passing Mebsuta and should be an easy sight for just about everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Venus<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the planets seen in binoculars, you have a fair chance of finding them with the help of naked eye planets early this month. Venus is 2.4\u00b0 from Uranus on the 4th<\/sup>. And Saturn is 1.0\u00b0 from Neptune on the 5th<\/sup>. Use a finder chart or planetarium program to help you hop from the bright object to the dim one in each case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Venus<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And Pluto is at opposition on the 25th<\/sup>. It’s not near any bright objects to help you find it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moon’s over the equator going south on the 1st<\/sup>. First quarter phase is on the 2nd<\/sup>. Luna passes Spica on the 3rd<\/sup> and occults the star for observers in a swath from the Falkland Islands to the Weddell Sea and Queen Maud Land regions of Antarctica. The moon’s at apogee on the 5th<\/sup> at 404,700 kilometers away. The moon will occult another star, Antares, on the 7th<\/sup>. The visibility area is from southern Africa to the Kerguellen Islands to far western Australia. The Enderby Land and American Highland parts of Australia get the view too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Southern lunistice occurs on the 9th<\/sup> at 28.4\u00b0 south. Full moon is the next day. The moon’s over the equator going north on the 16th<\/sup>. Also that day, it passes 3.4\u00b0 from Saturn and 2.4\u00b0 from Neptune. Last quarter is on the 18th<\/sup>. On the 20th<\/sup>, apogee happens at 368,000 kilometers away. The moon’s also 5.0\u00b0 from Uranus that day. This month’s Venus-moon pairing is on the morning of the 21st<\/sup> with a 7.1\u00b0 separation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Jupiter<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We have northern lunistice on the 22nd<\/sup> at 28.5\u00b0 north. The moon’s 4.9\u00b0 from Jupiter on the 23rd<\/sup>. And then 2.5\u00b0 from Pollux on the 24th<\/sup>. That pairing won’t be visible, however, because of new moon being the same day. You’ll have some chance of spotting the moon close to Mercury in the evening sky with a 7.5\u00b0 separation on the 25th<\/sup>. The best viewing will be from the southern hemisphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Visibility<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Visibility<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Regulus gets a visit from the moon on the 26th<\/sup>. They’re 1.2\u00b0 apart. Then the moon is 1.1\u00b0 from Mars on the 28th<\/sup>. Luna crosses the equator southward again on the 29th<\/sup>. Spica gets a second occultation in July when the moon’s center passes 0.9\u00b0 from the star. The view is limited to parts of Antarctica. August 1st<\/sup> brings the first quarter phase and apogee at 404,200 kilometers away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Visibility<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Earth is at aphelion on the 3rd at 19:55 UT at 1.017 astronomical units from the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercury is at aphelion on the 14th<\/sup> at 0.47 astronomical units from the sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mercury and Mars are nice evening objects at the start of July. Look west at dusk. Mercury is at greatest elongation on the 4th at 25.9\u00b0 east of the sun. It passes right by Asellus Australis that evening. That’s the southern donkey star in Cancer. It’s said to be one of the two donkeys feeding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-64"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1275"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1325,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1275\/revisions\/1325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}