The last days of July offer us great opportunities to observe the planets. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and Uranus shine brightly at the end of the night, while Venus remains visible at sunset. These are also great nights to observe the Milky Way.
The last days of July provide us with great opportunities to observe the planets. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Uranus They rise at the end of the night while Venus It is still visible in the evening. These are also great nights for observing the Milky Way.
Sunrise with diamonds
In the early morning of these days at the end of the month, before sunrise, Jupiter, Mars and Uranus are in a state of presence. TaurusThe three planets form an imaginary straight line extending between them. Pleiades and Aldebaran RedOne of the bright stars on the head of the bull. Down, near the eastern horizon, is the exit. Orion.
Between Monday the 29th and Wednesday the 31st, the waning moon joins the scene. To create beautiful prints with planets. We can enjoy the show even in an urban environment, as the Moon, Jupiter, Mars and the brightest stars in the region can all be seen in moderate light pollution conditions.
Uranus is difficult to spot, as it shines more dimly (visual magnitude +5.8) than its siblings Jupiter (-2.1) and Mars (+0.9). These visual magnitude values mean that Jupiter appears 16 times brighter than Mars, and 1,400 times brighter than Uranus. For this reason, to spot the latter, you need a small telescope or good binoculars.
These differences in the apparent brightness of the planets are due to their different sizes, their properties in reflecting sunlight, and of course the distances between them. Uranus is now 3 billion kilometers away from Earth, while Jupiter is 830 million kilometers away from Earth, and Mars is only 240 million kilometers away from Earth.
Saturn and Venus
The ringed giant is now visible during the second part of the night. It appears on the southeastern horizon shortly after midnight, rising higher as it moves south, and disappears in the glow of dawn. We will have to watch Saturn over the coming weeks, especially on August 21, when, from the peninsula and the Canary Islands, we will be able to observe how the Moon will hide it for more than an hour: the planet will disappear. Enter the light side of our satellite to emerge from the dark oblivion.
Venus is the only evening star these summer days. We can see it very low in the northwest, on the horizon, where the Sun will present us on August 5th with a beautiful conjunction with the thin edge of the crescent Moon (the New Moon occurs on August 4th), but we will have to be careful, as the show will be only half an hour after sunset.
And the Milky Way in all its glory
Throughout the year, as it moves around the Sun, the Earth “looks” at different areas of the night sky. Now in these days of July, look towards the central part of our galaxy, the Milky Way, and for this reason, at the beginning of the night we can see the galactic plane crossing the sky from north to south. Thus the Milky Way appears to us in July in all its splendor. On the 25th, the Feast of Santiago is celebrated, a moment in which the Milky Way takes on a very special meaning in our country, since the plane of our galaxy could serve as a guide for pilgrims who, in the Middle Ages, were heading to Compostela. From this we derive our popular term “Camino de Santiago” for the plane of the Milky Way. The name “Compostela” itself seems to derive from the Latin term “Campus Stellae”: field of stars.
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