Current Night Sky: July 2019

There is a total solar eclipse on July 2. The path of totality crosses the central and eastern portions of the South Pacific before hitting the coast of Chile. It then slices through Argentina, stopping just as it reaches the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

Earth reaches aphelion – its furthest distance from the Sun – at 6:11 pm on July 4. The planet is then 94.5 million miles from the Sun – 3.4% further than at its closest approach in January. Seasons are caused not by variation in our planet’s distance from the Sun but by its axial tilt causing differential solar lighting on its Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

There is a partial lunar eclipse on July 16, visible from South America and much of the Eastern hemisphere. It will not be visible from North America.

The Moon & Planets: 

On July 2, there is a total eclipse of the Sun on a narrow path over the southeast Pacific and across South America. The duration of totality as the shadow cone reaches the coast is 2 minutes and 33 seconds. The track continues over the Andes, and provides over 2 minutes of totality to 3 major observatories: Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, Gemini Observatory, and La Silla Observatory. It then races across the Pampas and into the western and southern suburbs of Buenos Aires, and disappears completely once it reaches the Atlantic. Remarkably, another total solar eclipse will sweep over Chile and Argentina (but several hundred miles further to the south, in the Patagonia region) on December 14, 2020 – just 17 months later! (Credit: Astronomy.com)

Earth's orbit around the Sun

Earth's orbit around the Sun is almost – but not quite – perfectly circular. Earth reaches aphelion – its furthest distance from the Sun – in early July, and is closest to the Sun in January. Our planet is about 3% further from the Sun at aphelion than it is at perihelion. (Credit: timeanddate.com)

Saturn

Saturn reaches opposition on July 9. It rises at sunset, stays up all night, and sets at sunrise. It is also at its closest approach of the year: 839.65 million miles from Earth. Its brightness reaches a maximum (magnitude 0.1) and the angular diameter of the both the planet’s disk (18.4 arc-seconds) and visible rings (41.8 arc-seconds) are at their greatest. The rings are now tilted about 24° to our line of sight. In this illustration, three of the planet's mid-sized moons (left to right: Tethys, Dione, and Rhea) are visible (July 9, 2019: 1:00 pm EDT).

Evening Planets (after sunset): 
  • Mercury, W
  • Mars, NW
  • Jupiter, SW
  • Saturn, SE
Morning Planets (before sunrise): 
  • Saturn, SW
  • Neptune, S
  • Uranus, E
  • Venus, NE
Comets: 

There are no comets brighter than magnitude 8 currently visible.

Meteors: 

The South Delta Aquariid meteors peak on July 30, though they build up and ramp down slowly over some weeks. With the Moon out of the way, up to 25 meteors per hour may be visible. However, this shower tends to favor Southern Hemisphere observers.

Phases of the Moon: 
New Moon July 2 3:16 pm EST
First Quarter Moon July 9 6:55 am EDT
Full Moon July 16 5:38 pm EDT
Last Quarter Moon July 24 9:18 pm EDT
New Moon July 31 11:12 pm EST

Text, graphics, and animations by John Sheff. Graphics courtesy of Starry Night(©) Pro Plus 7 / Imaginova(©) Corp. Starry Night images are used with permission from Imaginova Corp. Starry Night is a registered trademark of Imaginova Corp. Star charts generated by Starry Night Pro Plus 7 © Imaginova Corp. All rights reserved. www.StarryNight.com