July 2020 - Vol. 24, No. 7

This Month's Night Sky - NOTE: The next paragraph describes the sky as it appears at 10 pm EST (11 pm EDT) near mid- month. The sky also looks this way at 11 pm EST (midnight EDT) during the beginning of the month and at 9 pm EST (10 pm EDT) by month's end.

Bright blue-white Vega (Lyra) shines high overhead as it "leads" the Summer Triangle across the night sky. The "Triangle" is the summer’s most prominent asterism and is made up of three stars: Vega, the brightest, Deneb (Cygnus) and Altair (Aquila). In the SW, Arcturus (Bootes) is dropping towards the horizon as Spica (Virgo) vanishes from sight below. Also look for Antares (Scorpius) low in the SW. The stars of constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius, embedded in the "Milky Way" (part of one of the spiral “arms” of our galaxy), are at their best this month. Look for another famous asterism, "the teapot" (Sagittarius). The "Great Square of Pegasus" asterism, now appears on the E horizon just before the onset of morning twilight. These are the stars of autumn that will take over when the northern summer wanes!

MERCURY emerges from inferior conjunction on the 1st, entering the morning sky and reaching greatest enlongation W. on the 22nd. VENUS prominent in the morning sky reaching -4.7 in the constellation of Taurus. MARS opens the month shining at -0.5 mag. By month's end it will rise at midnight and shine at -1.0 magnitude. JUPITER reaches opposition on July 14, shining at -2.7 in Sagittarius. SATURN also reaches opposition in Sagittarius on July 20. URANUS rises in the morning sky, about halfway between Venus and Mars as from the northern hemisphere. NEPTUNE in Aquarius is in the morning sky.

Review how to determine Angular Measurement.

Calendar of Events

NOTE: For those observers not in the ET zone, convert the calendar times to your zone's time by subtracting one hour for CT, two for MT and three for PT. Don't forget to adjust for Daylight Savings Time when necessary by subtracting one hour from your planisphere's time. Dawn and dusk times must also be corrected. See your local newspaper, TV news, or cable TV's Weather Channel for sunrise and sunset times or check with the U.S. Naval observatory. Unfortunately some of these events may occur during daylight hours in your area.

Lunar Almanac for July 2020

Phases of the Moon	Phase and Date(s)	Best viewed before local midnight
	New 20	Deep Space Objects
	1st. Qtr 27	Planets & Moon
	Full 05	Moon
	Last Qtr 12	Deep Space & Planets

Topic of the month: C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)

NEOWISE C/2020 F3 is a naked eye comet, but you will need a dark sky to see it well. Unfortunately because it is summer in the northern hemisphere, many observers will struggle with the long daylight hours. The comet will probably look best in binoculars and I have even seen pictures of it taken from city streets.

For many astronomers, predicting whether or not a comet will be very bright is a tough challenge. In 2020, Comet C/2020 F3 took astronomers by surprise when it brightened up tremendously after its perihelion visit to the Sun. This sleeper was discovered on March 27, 2020 by the NEOWISE space telescope. The comet was a 16-mag object when discovered. It was 2.1 au from the Sun at that time. It brightened quickly and reached 10th magnitude by the end of April. Perihelion was on July 3 and it will be 0.69 au at its closest approach to Earth around July 22.

As of this writing, the comet has grown a second tail. Observers around the world are posting pictures all over the internet. The comet is heading toward the Big Bear, the astronomical constellation known as Ursa Major. By mid-month, it will visible be all night, although it is low on the horizon.

This starchart below was plotted using the date of July 1, 2020 by Tom Ruen, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. I downloaded the image to present here at the Gate. The yellow line represents the ecliptic. The partially filled circles on dates after perihelion help to define the direction of the Sun.

Because it's such a timely topic, I've found some links to some good pages on the comet NEOWISE

How to see Comet NEOWISE - From EarthSky

This article by Eddie Irizarry contains some good images and finder charts for observing the comet.

C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) - Minor Planet Center

Comet NEOWISE Makes A Bright Appearance At Dawn — Come See! - from Astro Bob

Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) - from The Sky Live

The Sky Live features many Solar System objects including planets, asteroids, Moon and Sun. The site contains an online planetarium and animations. You can also create your own quick access page for information on astronomical objects.

Or course, the comet (or other solar system objects) information can be loaded into Stellarium through the configuration menu (F2), choose Plug-ins and hit the Configure button. Go to Solar System and click on Import orbital elements in MPC format. Then you can go to the Online Search tab and put in the name of the comet C/2020 F3 . When the comet appears in the window you can check the Add Objects checkbox. Now you can search for the comet in the Find window in the main program. Use the same name that you searched on [ C/2020 F3 ]

Find out more about NEOWISE and other comets on Astra's Comet Page

--See You Under the Stars!
Astra for Astra's Almanac

This installment of "What's Up?" is ©2020 by Dawn Jenkins for Astra's Stargate. View Ron Leeseburg's Farewell Issue for information on where to find information such as is presented in this almanac.