July 2025 Night time Skye Information

With heat climate and relaxed schedules, summer time stargazing simply hits otherwise, particularly with July’s lineup of dazzling area sights. We now have planet parades, moon-planet meetups, and meteor showers producing interstellar fireworks. Plus July is likely one of the greatest months to admire our house galaxy, the Milky Method. It’s seen a lot of the evening from a dark-sky vacation spot, be it a nationwide park or stargazing lodge.

If admiring the heavens is in your summer time bucket record, you’re in luck. Right here’s every little thing to look at for in July’s evening sky.

July 3-4: Mercury at biggest jap elongation

Mercury is usually troublesome to identify because it hangs near the solar, however its visibility improves just a few instances every year, together with this month. On the evenings of July 3-4, Mercury will attain its jap elongation—its obvious farthest separation from the solar—within the night for U.S. sky-watchers. Discover it above the western horizon quickly after sundown, and don’t miss orange-tinged Mars simply above it.

July 10: Full buck moon

Admire July’s vivid lunar orb, often called the total buck moon, on July 10. The moon hits peak illumination at 4:37 p.m. ET, in line with The Previous Farmer’s Almanac. It received’t be seen to U.S. stargazers right now, however you may catch it at its most luminous and dramatic when it rises the evenings of July 9 and 10.

July 16: Moon, Saturn, and Neptune trifecta

Watch the waning gibbous moon, Saturn, and Neptune meet within the evening sky round midnight on July 16. The trio will journey above the jap horizon and excessive into the sky all through the evening, with Venus and Jupiter becoming a member of quickly earlier than dawn. Whereas the moon and Saturn might be seen to the bare eye, Neptune requires a telescope.

July 19-20: Pre-dawn planet parade

Stargazers might be handled with an eye-popping planet parade roughly an hour earlier than dawn on July 19 and 20. Jupiter, Venus, the crescent moon, and Saturn might be seen to the bare eye, with Neptune (adjoining to Saturn) and Uranus (close to Venus) seen by way of telescope. Watch the lineup within the east and southeast sky, and search for clear jap vistas since Jupiter received’t journey far above the horizon.

July 20: Crescent moon covers Pleiades

The crescent moon will seem to gobble up the Pleiades star cluster within the pre-dawn hours of July 20. The moon will cross over a number of of the cluster’s naked-eye-visible stars between round 4 a.m. native time and dawn. Watch the marvel unfold midway above the jap horizon.

July 22: A Venus-moon-Jupiter pyramid

The moon-planet magic continues on the morning of July 22, when Venus, Jupiter, and the sliver of a crescent moon kind a pyramid above the jap horizon for roughly an hour earlier than dawn.

July 28: Moon joins Mars

Spot the crescent moon and Mars hanging above the western horizon for roughly two hours after sundown on July 28. The duo might be shut sufficient to share a subject of view in stargazing binoculars, in line with stargazing app Sky Safari.

July 29-30: Southern Delta Aquariid meteor bathe peaks

The Southern Delta Aquariid meteor bathe runs from round July 18 to Aug. 12, in line with NASA. Its July 29-30 peak may produce round seven to eight meteors per hour beneath darkish skies. This spectacle is greatest considered within the southern hemisphere sky-watching spots. That stated, northern hemisphere stargazers might catch just a few taking pictures stars above the southern horizon through the bathe’s peak. Use Saturn, positioned simply above Aquarius, as a navigational information. And because the Perseids start this month, too, you could possibly catch just a few meteors above the jap horizon.

July 30-31: Planet Parade

The pre-dawn planet parade will get even dreamier because the month rolls on, notably round July 30 and 31, when Jupiter strikes away from the solar. You may see the upward arc of Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, Saturn, and Neptune from the east to the southern sky within the early morning hours of July 30 and 31. When you miss it, don’t fret: That is merely an appetizer for what’s to come back with planetary alignments in August.