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The Planets this Month:To find out more about the planets, click on an image, below, and to find out about the constellations the planets pass through, click on the blue links. |
Times in UTC | |
Mercury:
The Winged Messenger of the Gods
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Rises 02:57
Sets 18:51 Phase 22% |
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Venus:
The Goddess of Love
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Rises 07:48
Sets 21:41 Phase 25% |
Mars:
The God of War
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Rises 00:03
Sets 14:54 Phase 87% |
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Jupiter:
The Bringer of Jollity.
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Rises 17:14
Sets 01:16 Phase 100% |
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Saturn:
The Bringer of Old Age
Saturn's rings are still a fine site in telescopes, although now not fully open. Several of Saturn's moons including the largest, Titan, can easily be seen in a small telescope. |
Rises 07:01
Sets 21:48 Phase 100% |
Uranus:
The Magician
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Rises 22:19
Sets 09:33 Phase 100% |
Sun & Moon in July:
The Sun is in Geminiat the start of July, moving into Canceron the 21st. For most of the month the Sun never goes far enough below the horizon at latitudes higher than about 55N° for it to be properly dark, its twilight all night.
There were few sunspotsin June, with many days showing no sunspot activity at all, indicating that we are at, or close to, solar minimum. NASA predicts that the actual solar minimum for cycle 23 will occur around March 2008 ± 6 months. However, in a few years it should be anything but quiet. Solar researchers are predicting that the next Solar Maximum, cycle 24, is expected around October 2011.
NEVERlook at the Sun directly; alwaysproject the image of the Sun onto a white card using binoculars or a telescope.
1st 7th 14th 21st 28th Current lunar phase,
updated every four hours:Sunrise 03:46 03:51 03:59 04:08 04:19Sunset 20:42 20:39 20:33 20:24 20:13 Moonrise 21:58 23:16 03:11 12:26 19:59Moonset 03:56 12:32 21:06 22:25 01:37 Phases of the MoonLast Quarter - 5th New - 14th First Quarter - 22nd Full - 30th
Meteor Diary:
On clear nights, we sometimes see the occasional meteoror “shooting-star”, as tiny particles of inter-planetary débris burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. Sometimes the Earth passes through a cloud of this dust, and we get a meteor shower.
delta-Aquarids, peak 30th July; ZHR = 20 The peak is on the night of the full Moon, and all but the brightest meteors will be drowned out by moonlight
July Sky Diary
1st 15h Venus in conjunction with Saturn (0.4° south of Saturn.) 7th 00h Earth at aphelion (Farthest from the Sun), 152,097,000km (94,508,694 miles) 9th 11h Moon 6° north of Mars. 9th 22h Moon at perigee (Closest to Earth) 368,527km; 228,992 miles 13th 21h Venus and Regulus 1.7° apart. 13th 04h Moon 8° to the upper left of Mercury. 16th 23h Moon 0.1° south of Saturn. 17th 12h Moon 2° to the upper left of Venus. 20th 15h Mercury at greatest western elongation (20° 19'). 22nd 09h Moon at apogee (Farthest from Earth) 404,155km; 251,130 milesUK Astronomy TV Programmes and Websites
Why not watch Dr. Patrick Moore's excellent TV programme, The Sky at Night . Broadcast late at night on BBC 2, repeated on BBC1 and BBC 4. If you miss it, or live outside the UK, there is a streaming video of the last programme on the website. Also try the Open University's Final Frontier programme about the world of astronomy and space exploration.
Also visit the BBC's Solar System , Space and the Open University's Open 2 Websites.