With the arrival of the summer holidays as a better time to turn your nose up and observe the wonders of the sky of the month of July. Once again the protagonist will be the Moonwith the first quarter on July 2, new on July 25 and full on 10 July, which will go to conjunction with the stars Spica and antaresThe 3 and 7 Julyand with the planet Mars July 28th. The planet Mercury, however, will begin on 17 July his retrograde motion in the celestial vault, also accompanied by Saturn which instead will begin the July 14th. The Lord of the Rings will make themselves the protagonist of a spectacular event, unfortunately not visible from Italy. On its surface it will in fact be visible the July 2 The shadow projected by his Titan satellite. The astronomical calendar of July also brings a appetizer of the “falling stars” season And the passage of Venus in the “golden door of the ecliptic” among the clusters of the Pleiades and Iadi.
Titan’s shadow on Saturn, the event every 15 years
The first and possibly more spectacular event of the month, although not visible from Italy, will give a show for the lucky lovers of the night sky in the American continent who are at least in possession of a telescope. The July 2ndin fact, from 2 in the morning to dawn, it will be possible to observe The shadow of the Titan satellite projected on the surface of the gaseous giant Saturna event Enough rareThat Dinuovo will happen in 2040. In order to observe this event it is necessary to have a tElescope of at least 10 cm in diameter and an eye capable of producing at least 200x of enlargement. This represents the first of a series of times when Titan’s shadow will be visible on Saturn. THE subsequent appointments in fact they will be the July 18, 3 and 19 August, 4 and 20 September. Unfortunately none of these will happen when it is night in Italy.
Conjunctions and lunar conceals
In July the Moon will be once again hero with different conjunctions between our natural satellite and stars and planets. It starts immediately the July 3rd with the Conjunction between the moon and the star Spicathe brightest star of the constellation of the Virgin. The two objects will reach one minimum angular distance of about 1 degreewith Maximum approach expected for the 22:40 Italian. Continue the July 7th with the conjunction between the Moon and the star Antares, the brightest star of the scorpion constellation. The conjunction will be close to, Less than half degreereaching his Massimo at 19:12 Italian timewhen unfortunately the sky will still be illuminated by the sun. The last two conjunctions of the month are the July 28 between the moon and Marsand the July 31 again with the star Spica. The July 28th a thin sickle of Growing Moon and the planet Mars they will be the protagonists of a close encounter to one handful of grades Shortly after the sunset of the sun. The two stars will be very low on the horizon and a west horizon will therefore be necessary to enjoy the event.
The highlight of the events concerning the moon will take place instead July 20. On this date, the moon will go to conceal the star cluster of the pleaids in the constellation of the bull. Unfortunately the actual concealment will take place when in Italy it will be 2 in the afternoon, so we will have to settle for observing only the conjunction between these two spectacular celestial bodies, which will happen starting from 2 in the morning of July 20when the two objects will find themselves separated from about 3 degrees. The small angular distance will still be an opportunity not to be missed to take a splendid snapshot of the pleaids and the moon in the same view.
The season of the summer shooting stars begins
July also represents a sort of appetizers of the copious “Ragging stars” who will sail the August sky. In fact there are a whole series of Meteoric shamans minors that occur during the seventh month of the year. It starts with the Theta-Persiidiwhich reach the maximum on July 2, followed by alpha and of epsilon pegasidi Around 11-12 July. In mid -July it is the turn of the 20-Aquarids, Delta-Sagittaridiand between 18 and 20 July also of Kappa-Delphinidi e from the XI-Anoythids. At the end of July, however, we have alpha-capicornidi, Draconidi and Piscis Austrinidi range. All these minor swarms are characterized by having, peak, Maximum 5 meteors per hour. The most copious swarm of the month is instead that of Southern aquarids which owe their name to the dial from which the meteors seem to come. This swarm, al peak of 31 Julyhas a meteor rate of about 25 per hour.
Saturn and mercury in retrograde motion
Be the planet Saturn the planet Mercury they will begin their retrograde motion in the night sky this month. The first to do it will be Saturn on July 14thfollowed by Mercury on July 17th. Recall that retrograde moto is a apparent motorcycle of the planets on the celestial vault due to a projection effect of the positions related to the earth-pianeta during the orbit around the sun.
Celestial configurations worthy of note
There are two celestial configurations to keep an eye on in July. The first and most spectacular takes place Between 7 and 14 Julywhen starting from 4 in the morning about, the planet Venus will find themselves Between the splendid star clusters of the Pleiades and Iadiboth in the constellation of the bull. This area between the two clusters is also defined as “Golden door of the ecliptic”. Once you identified Venus towards the east, which is rather simple given its brightness, just identify the brilliant star on its right Aldebaran. A little further on there will be the Iadiwhile continuing ideally along a straight line towards the celestial pole, it will also be possible to identify the cluster of the Pleiadi.
There second configuration Instead, it is one that will accompany us throughout the summer. We are talking about the so -called “summer triangle”an asterism formed by the three light stars Vegain the constellation of the lira, Denebin the swan, e Altair in the constellation of L’Aquila. During the month of July, this asterism will be visible and tall in heaven all night, from sunset to dawn. Asterism is also known to be a easy way to identify the whitish strip of the galactic plan of the Milky Waywhich passes through the three stars of the summer triangle.
The weak comet C/2022 N2 (Panstarrs) to Perdielio
2025 is unfortunately showing itself greedy of brilliant comets that can be stocks using at least one binoculars. July unfortunately it is no exception, with the only noteworthy comet of the month, C/2022 N2 (Panstarrs)which will move on to Perdie (point of the orbit closest to the sun) the July 31stwhen it is located almost 4 astronomical units from the sun, between the orbit of Mars and that of Jupiter. At the transition to Perdie, the comet will reach the magnitude of 14.7too dimly to be seen with the naked eye. Indeed, it will be a great challenge even for more experienced astrophils, which will have to have a telescope of generous opening to find it.
