{"id":816,"date":"2022-06-30T00:56:50","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T00:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=816"},"modified":"2022-06-30T00:56:50","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T00:56:50","slug":"july-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/july-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"July 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Earth farthest from the sun, Mercury closest<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earth\nis farthest from the sun on the 4th<\/sup>.\nIt’s 152 million kilometers or 94.5 million miles away. In six\nmonths, the sun’s disk will appear 3.6% bigger. That’s not something\nthe human eye can detect\u2014and don’t try without eye protection! Only\nin photographs or with measurements taken by scientific instruments\ncan the difference be seen. The earth orbits the sun in a figure\nthat’s close enough to a circle to keep the sun’s visual width very\nclose to 0.5\u00b0 all year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venus orbits in a\nmore nearly perfect circle. If you could see the sun in spite of all\nthe clouds on the planet, the sun’s disk would barely change size\nfrom 43’54\u201d at aphelion (farthest from the sun) to 44’30\u201d at\nperihelion (closest). The closer measurement is just 1.3% bigger. Of\ncourse, that’s nearly 50% bigger than it would look from Earth on any\nday. Venus will not go through aphelion or perihelion this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercury’s\norbit is much more eccentric (how much more elliptical than\ncirculuar). At aphelion, the sun appears to be 1\u00b08’31\u201d wide. It’s\n1\u00b043’58\u201d at perihelion. The change is 51.7%. The sun’s disk goes\nfrom looking a little more than twice its size from Earth to almost\nthree-and-a-half times. Mercury will be at perihelion on the 10th<\/sup>.\nIt will be 46.1 million kilometers or 26.8 million miles from the\nsun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moon’s circumstances<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmonth starts with a thin crescent moon rising in the evening. It\npasses through the stars of Leo in the first few evenings of the\nmonth, passing in front of Al Jabhah (Eta Leonis) on the 3rd<\/sup>\nUT for sky watchers in the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York areas of\nAustralia, the island of New Guinea, and the Bismarck Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoon’s approaching first quarter as it enters Virgo. Viewers in\nnortheast Africa and on the Arabian Peninsula on the 6th<\/sup>\ncan see it pass in front of Porrima. The moon will be a little south\nof the equator, having crossed it earlier that day. First quarter is\non the 7th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\ngibbous moon approaching full phase occults Dschubba in Scorpius on\nthe 10th<\/sup>\nUT. The view is from far east Asia. Sky watchers in Taiwan, the\nKoreas, and Japan get the best of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Southern\nlunistice is on the 12th<\/sup>\nat 26.9\u00b0 and the moon is full on the 13th<\/sup>.\nIt will be a close full moon for southern hemisphere observers,\nbecause perigee is also on the 13th<\/sup>\nwith a distance of 357,200 kilometers or 222,000 miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nas the waning moon moves northward, it passes in front of Nunki on\nthe 13th<\/sup>\nUT for those who can watch from a wide path that begins in the\nsouthern Pacific Ocean, crosses the southern tip of South America,\nand ends on the South Atlantic. Most of the visibility is from ships\nat sea. Land based observing sites include southern Chile, southern\nArgentina, and Tristan da Cunha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe second half of the month, the moon passes several planets,\nstarting with Saturn on the 15th<\/sup>\nUT. It passes Jupiter on the 19th<\/sup>.\nOn the same day, it crosses the equator going northward. Then it\nreaches last quarter on the 20th<\/sup>.\nMars is at southern solstice on the 21st<\/sup>\nas the moon passes by it in our morning sky. The moon is at northern\nlunistice on the 26th<\/sup>\nat 26.9\u00b0 and passes Venus in our sky the same day. New moon is on\nthe 28th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Planets<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Moon's<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Moon's<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Planets’ visibility<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSaturn rises by mid evening. It’s retrograde in Capricornus passing\nnorth of Deneb Algedi and approaching Nashira. It makes a nice\ntriangle with them. The ringed planet is a mid-evening riser by the\nend of the month. Northern hemisphere observers see it not long after\nsunset by then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jupiter\nrises around midnight in Pisces. Its motion is direct (eastward) for\nmost of the month and rises earlier each night. By about the 20th<\/sup>,\nthe planet appears stationary. That is to say it’s holding nearly\nstill among the stars behind it. But because those stars continue\nrising earlier every night, so does Jupiter. It’s a late evening\nriser by the end of July. Jupiter’s retrograde motion begins on the\n29th<\/sup>,\nbut it will continue to appear stationary until mid-August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Moon<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Moon's<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\nMars is deeper into Pisces when July begins. Its motion is direct all\nmonth as it passes over the head of Cetus the sea monster. Mars is\nheading to a close meeting with Uranus in early August. You’ll need\nmagnification to see the faint blue dot of Uranus. The color contrast\nwith the red planet will look good. Mars will rise around midnight by\nthe end of July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nPleiades rise in the morning before dawn. Below them is bright Venus\ncoming off the Hyades V leg opposite orange Aldebaran on the first\nmorning of July. The planet quickly moves east of the asterism and is\nclose to the dim star Tianguan on the 13th<\/sup>.\nIt passes throught the feet of Gemini beginning on the 18th<\/sup>.\nBy month’s end, the planet is at the twins’ waistlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Low<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mercury\nis in the morning sky when the month starts. If you can find it, it\nwill be below right of Elnath in Auriga. The leg of the Hyades V with\nAldebaran will almost point the way to the planet. But the planet’s\nmoving fast. It’s heading toward superior conjunction on the 16th<\/sup>.\nObservers about 4\u00b0 south of the equator will get the best view as\nthe messenger planet sinks into the sunrise. An evening object the\nrest of the month, the first views will likely be from about 14\u00b0\nsouth. The planet will appear to be almost in the sickle of Leo as it\nand the constellation set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pluto\nis at opposition on the 20th<\/sup>.\nGiven the planet’s magnitude of 13.65, you will need a big telescope,\na very dark sky, and knowledge of its precise location to see it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neptune\nremains near the Pisces fish head that’s closest to Aquarius. The\nmoon passes by on the 18th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meteor shower<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nSouthern Delta Aquariids meteor shower peaks on July 30th<\/sup>.\nWith the moon just past new, there’ll be no moonlight to spoil the\nview when the radiant point rises about mid-evening. Find a dark sky\nand maybe you’ll see up to 20 meteors per hour. This shower has a\nbroad enough peak to offer a show for several nights, so start\nwatching a few nights before the peak and keep watching for a few\nnights after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hubble<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Comet<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\ncomet discovered in 2017 will be closest to Earth this month. The\nformal name is PANSTARRS C\/2017 K2. We can call it K2 for short.\nIt’ll be about 1.8 astronomical units from Earth on the 14th<\/sup>.\nAs of late June, it’s slightly brighter than ninth magnitude and\nreach about magntitude eight at its peak. That will make it visible\nin small and medium size telescopes in dark enough skies. K2 won’t be\nclosest to the sun until December 19th<\/sup>.\nBut it’s been a rather active comet already. At the time of its\ndiscovery, it was the farthest active comet ever known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nK2 is thought to be a truly new comet on its first run to the\nplanetary part of the solar system. It may have started its trip from\nthe Oort Cloud millions of years ago. After this first time through,\nit may return in about 18,000 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earth farthest from the sun, Mercury closest Earth is farthest from the sun on the 4th. It’s 152 million kilometers or 94.5 million miles away. In six months, the sun’s disk will appear 3.6% bigger. That’s not something the human eye can detect\u2014and don’t try without eye protection! Only in photographs or with measurements taken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-61"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816","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=816"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816\/revisions\/830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}