Forecast for July 2014


Moon                         
                                                    
First Quarter                         5th  - 13:35 – 00:12     
Full                                       12th  - 21:00 – 05:06
Last Quarter                        19th  - 00:00 – 14:21
New                                      26th  - 04:59 – 20:22

High summer now, perhaps not so high at the moment as it’s raining, though it does make the garden grow, too much. This month and August will be the only time we in the north will have a change to see towards the centre of the galaxy at 17h45m40.04s, −29° 00' 28.1", though it only rises some 11° above the horizon. Lots to see there if lucky with the skies. Messier found plenty there but he was some way further south.
 

 



 

 

Planets

 Mercury will be a morning object, rising on the first at 4:20am, presenting a mag 2.4/11arcsec disc, with a 11° phase, a very thin crescent, but in bright twilight with the Sun clearing the horizon 30 mins later. Very difficult. By mid-month it will be an hour ahead of the Sun and brighter, but smaller. Brighter because of a fatter phase, 43%. By the end of the month it will be still brighter at mag -1.4 but smaller at 5arcsec, with an even fatter phase, 92%. So all in all, visible all month except in the first few days.
Venus is also a morning object rising on the 1st, at 3:00am, in brightening twilight, just over an hour before the Sun. It will present a mag -3.9/12arcsec disc with a 85% phase. The Morning Star! By the 15th it will have changed little, but will be up about 2 hours before the Sun. On the 31st it will still be unchanged, but will be making its way back towards the Sun and will rise an hour ahead of it.
Mars will culminate on the first at 7:15pm in broad daylight, a difficult to find mag 0/9arcsec disc. It will set at 12:45am in dark skies, but detail will be difficult to see so low and now much further away than last month. By mid-month it will again be up in daylight but its mag0.2 disc will set at midnight. At the end of the month its mag 0.4/8arcsec disc will set at 11:00pm.
Jupiter will be going down in the west in evening twilight and its mag -1.8/32arcsec disc will drop below the horizon at 10:15pm, 50mins after the Sun, bright twilight. On the 15th it will set at 9:30pm, 10 mins before the Sun and at the end of the month it will set at 8:45pm, 10 mins after the Sun. It will have passed behind the Sun on the 24th. So don’t look for it after the middle of the month as it’ll be too close to the Sun for safety.
Saturn too will be near the end of its stay with us. At the beginning of July it will be due south at 9:15pm going down towards the west where it will set at 2:00am. It will rise only some 22° above the southern horizon at best this month. It will show a mag 0.4/18arcsec disc, but the rings will be wide open. At mid-month it will set at 1:00am in dark skies, very much worth a look. At the end of the month it will set at midnight. A little fainter and smaller, but not noticeably so.
Uranus will be different, rising at 1:00am in the east, a small blue, mag 5.8/3arcsec dot. It will set in daylight, so if observing it will gradually fade from view as morning twilight brightens the sky. Worth trying to photographing its moons though, noting their line, almost 90° different to those of Jupiter’s. Almost due north/south, whereas Jupiter’s are east/west. On the 15th it will rise an hour earlier at midnight and set in daylight, and on the 31st it will rise at 11:00pm, presenting an unchanged disc.
Neptune will rise on the first at midnight just south of east, a tiny blue mag 7.7/2arcsec dot. It will be available for study till dawn twilight fades it out, some two hours later. By the end of the month it will rise at 10:00pm and again fade from view as dawn twilight overtakes it, but it will have been up all the hours of darkness, short though that will be in July. Its highest point will be in the south and no more than 26° above the horizon.
 

Meteor Showers  The Delta Aquariids, peaking on the 29th with possibly 16 faint meteors is perhaps worth the wait. The Moon will not interfere but faint means some will be missed especially as the radiant is low in the south.
Another possible is the Alpha Capricornids, peaking the same night but with a possible 5 bright ones. The radiant is close by too, in Capricorn, a few degrees to the south.

  

Comets C/2012 K1 PANSTARRS will be approximately mag 12 on the 1st, going down in the west after the Sun, but will be difficult visually as it will be in still bright-ish evening twilight, and low too.


The loss of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars leaves us with the outer gas planets, Uranus and Neptune, and the morning Mercury and Venus, neither with much detail. Not a good month for planets, nor for deep sky objects, as far as available time is concerned. But though time is limiting the spread of possible targets is tremendous. Low in the south there is the hub of the galaxy and all the Messier items and higher up along the summer Milky Way disc there is an abundance of targets in Aquila Cygnus, Sagitta, Vulpecula, Lacerta, Cassiopeia, Cephus and Perseus, all with lots to see and photograph.  

Any questions, email me at the observatory.

Good Hunting.