Venus remains visible in evening twilight all month, and on July 17, the young crescent Moon again passes below Venus, but not quite as close as the pairing in June.
The best time to view this on the day will be from 9.45pm BST, looking low down to the west.
Although the brightness of Venus increases through July as it gets closer to Earth, this is offset by it sinking lower into twilight as the month progresses.
On July 29, Jupiter is in conjunction with the Sun and so is not visible.
Now we are past the summer solstice, the hours of daylight are shortening once again, and all-night twilight ends later in July.
However, even at the end of July, the Sun is setting not much before 9pm.
The Earth’s orbit around the Sun is elliptical and on July 6, Earth is at its furthest from the Sun for the year, 3 million miles further away than at our closest in January.
The full moon on the 29 will be a little higher in the sky than the June full moon, though still less than 20 degrees above the horizon when due south.
With the full moon brightening the sky at the end of July, the best period for late evening stargazing will be the middle part of the month up to about the 23.
The ‘Summer Triangle’ of the three bright stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair is in the south at midnight.
From darker locations, the Milky Way should be visible in clear conditions, streaming down through the Summer Triangle from the constellation of Cygnus towards Sagittarius near the horizon.
The stars of Sagittarius are often lost in the murk from the UK as they are so low, but when looking in that direction, we are looking towards the centre of our galaxy, 26,000 light years away.
Saturn and Mars are now emerging into the morning sky.
Mars will get very close to Jupiter in November and early in 2027, will become a bright object in the night sky, something that happens every two years due to the relative orbits of Earth and Mars.
It is still worth watching for noctilucent clouds (NLC) in both evening and morning twilight throughout July.
There have been several displays this summer.
On the evening of August 12, there will be an eclipse of the Sun.
The eclipse will be total in parts of Greenland, Iceland, and Spain.
It will be a big partial eclipse across the UK, with about 90% of the Sun covered as seen from the south-east of England.
- James Abbott is from the North Essex Astronomical Society (northessexastro.co.uk).
