![]() It will peak during the morning of July 30. The Southern Delta Aquarid meteor shower will start in mid July when the moon begins to point out all of our planets. Now we can see all seven of our planets at the same time. The moon will always pass fairly near any given planet once a month, but it is particularly impressive when they are all nicely lined up and you can get a good sense of its speed and its shape along the ecliptic with so many markers on its path. It is always nice to see at least one or two planets and the moon at the same time to get a much better sense of our ecliptic plane in space and how we are really orbiting the sun. Uranus glows with a subtle greenish light and Neptune is a pale blue. You will need at least a small telescope to see those two last planets in our solar system. Uranus will show up about evenly spaced between Venus and Mars and Neptune is located between Jupiter and Saturn, but much closer to Jupiter. The last two planets in our solar system, Uranus and Neptune, will also line up in order, but only with each other and not with the other five planets we just covered. Mercury will drop out of this great lineup by the end of the first week of this month, only to reappear in the evening sky by July 25. Then the other inferior planet, Mercury, finally finishes this great parade as it rises in the east just 45 minutes before sunrise. to begin the month just above Aldebaran in Taurus the Bull. Now we get to the inferior planets, inside the earth to the sun. Unlike the other superior planets which reach opposition every 13 months, Mars only reaches opposition every 26 months. 8 when it will be just 38.6 million miles away, about twice as close as its average distance. The red planet will not reach opposition until Dec. Notice that all three of these superior planets will be getting slightly closer and brighter and larger in our sky with each passing morning. Then there is a gap of about one hour as Mars will begin the month rising at 2 a.m. The King of the Planets will begin its own retrograde motion on July 29 and reach opposition on Sept. Then there will be a gap of about two hours before Jupiter will rise in Cetus the whale. The ringed planet will reach opposition next month on Aug. The great parade of planets marching in perfect order now begins a little earlier each night as Saturn starts the month rising at 11 p.m. That comet, along with near earth asteroid EH1 which causes the Quadrantid meteors in early January each year, can be traced back to a comet that broke up about 9,500 years ago. People in the southern hemisphere will see about twice as many since Aquarius will be higher in the sky for them. You can only expect about 12 meteors per hour emanating from western Aquarius, near Capricorn. That is the Southern Delta Aquarid shower. Then the first good meteor shower since early May will peak on the morning of July 30. The remaining highlights include the opposition of an asteroid named Aquitania in Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer and Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) will also be visible in that same constellation just a little farther north of Aquitania and on the other side of M14, a nice globular star cluster containing about a quarter of a million stars located about 30,000 light years away. The other highlights include some nice lunar conjunctions with all the planets in the morning sky starting on July 16 with a nearly full moon and Saturn and lasting right through July 26 when the moon will have faded to a slender waning crescent as it finally catches up with Venus. This will not happen again until 2040, but then the last two planets, Uranus and Neptune will not be included among the other five as they are now. Also try to photograph it if at all possible. ![]() Make sure you see it at least once early in July if you have not already seen it in June. The great morning planetary lineup in order from Mercury to Saturn is still with us for the first week of the month, but it will spread out over 118 degrees from its most closely packed arrangement of just 91 degrees back in early June. Subscribe - $10 Sunday Delivery Sign In My Account Logout Primary Menu ☰ X ![]()
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