Caoimhín's Content

Today we are again going to look at the July sky, and we’re going to concentrate on the planets that are visible at sunset and sunrise. In order to give ourselves a better view, we’re going to move lower on the planet, closer to the equator. We won’t go too far to start with, just down into Southern Europe from our position in fairly northern Europe. That of course puts the Sun higher in the sky, we are still very much in the summer, but let’s see what it does to our view of the planets, starting with our sunset.

With a real horizon of course, there can be trees and buildings in the way, but Venus is still significantly higher above the horizon and more easily visible for more of the month from lower latitudes. This should mean that the close conjunction between Regulus and Venus, which we discussed last time, is also more visible. It is, it’s visible to the naked eye, the bright planet Venus right next to Regulus. They almost blur together with Venus’s brightness, but over a few days they can be seen coming together and moving apart with the naked eye. From here in Ireland the view will be much worse, by the time the sky is dark these objects will pretty much under the horizon, certainly below these hills and trees.

We’re going to move back towards the start of the month because Jupiter, is also up. It is very low and likely to be just behind trees or low hills. In Stellarium we can get rid of the landscape and give ourselves a perfectly clear view to the west, which is achievable if you head to the coastline or to a very flat area. That makes Jupiter much more visible, and from lower latitudes it seems much brighter, it’s visible above the horizon for far longer and in darker conditions. However, it is still moving back towards its solar conjunction, by the 29th Jupiter will be directly behind the Sun. It will disappear from our view a few days before that due to how bright the Sun is. Moving later in the month, the Moon firstly comes a little bit closer to Regulus before moving past it, up to Venus. Again, those things are much more visible from lower on the planet. We’re going to move forward to morning time because the Moon and the Pleiades also have a close conjunction, as well as Mars and Uranus. We’ll move back to the 4th of July, which is when Uranus and Mars are having their conjunction, and Mars visible in a much greater level of darkness early in the month from further south. The Pleiades are easier to spot, and zooming in on Mars lets us see Uranus. Now that we have moved lower on the planet, Uranus and Mars look even closer together in the sky. We can just about see one of Uranus’s moons as we take a closer look at Mars. We need to move later in the month to get the Moon and the Pleiades very close together.

From here in Ireland, the Moon didn’t occult the Pleiades because they were still below the horizon at their closest, moving apart as they rose. It does look like that is what’s happening from around Spain as well. We need to go to another, different location. We are a little bit off on the latitude and we will need to change the longitude quite. The coordinates bring us right on the edge of the Sea of Japan. We need to go back to morning time and we are looking at the 11th. We’ll get rid of the atmosphere to give ourselves the best chance and to make the Pleiades a little easier to see. The Moon does get quite close to them, but during the day, so the occultation isn’t visible from here. We’re closer, but it needs some fine-tuning. The Sun rises in the east, so we want to move away from the east, so that the Sun “unrises”, so the Sun goes back under the horizon. I think going closer to the equator would help as well, so we’ll head down to roughly India. Taking a closer look at the Moon and The Pleiades, they very close together. They are very close together, but it’s not an occultation. We’ll bring back the atmosphere and they are still visible. This is occurring, from this location, while these objects are above the horizon. When the Moon comes up, it will be just next to the Pleiades, and as we move forward, the Moon will move out of the way. This is occurring very close to the time of sunrise, so it is still a little difficult to see. Then again, we won’t be able to see this further from sunrise because of the phase of the Moon, the Moon necessarily has to be quite close to the Sun for it to be a narrow crescent.

There is another event that I was told to take a look at from a specific location, but we’ll come back to our default location first, just to compare. It is the conjunction of the Moon, Venus, and Regulus, all getting very close together on the second 17th. From Ireland, the Moon is very close to Venus, but it’s not very close to Regulus. As well, Regulus isn’t very visible in the sky due to the light of the sunset. We’ll get rid of the atmosphere to make things a little bit easier. Moving earlier, Regulus comes into view, but it isn’t very close to Venus and the Moon. Of course, the Moon moves across the sky very quickly, so from a different location on Earth it would look very different. With no atmosphere if we keep moving back, we can see the Moon move back to a position that is more between Venus and Regulus, not on the other side of Venus to Regulus. We’re going to move to a location where this is visible while the Sun is under the horizon. Again, I was given a location by a commenter, so that is what I will enter. It brings us much closer to the equator, roughly around the Philippines. We should have a much better view from this close to the equator certainly. We’ll turn around to the west, hopefully, here we go. We are in such a different location that the Milky Way is high in the sky, the core is prominent and fully above the horizon. Over in the west, Venus, the Moon, and Regulus are definitely above the horizon, without the Sun. Even with the atmosphere we have a great view. Even earlier in the evening, they are visible pretty high in the sky. Even with the glow of the Sun, we still see Regulus, the Moon, and Venus. This really is the perfect location to see that conjunction from.

Of course, it’s a pretty loose conjunction, the opposite of a close conjunction. The Moon isn’t super close to Venus or Regulus, but we do have all of those three bright objects all together. Regulus is quite bright, so it will emerge reasonably early in the evening. The Sun is just after going down, we have very few stars in the sky, but Regulus, Venus, and the Moon are out. Regulus is just about visible, getting more visible as we get later, but staying above the horizon. We are lucky that in this exact situation no tree on the horizon is blocking Regulus. If we compare this view with what we would see from back in Ireland, as the Sun goes down, Venus and the Moon are visible, but the Moon has moved quite far from Regulus and Regulus just isn’t visible. The sky doesn’t get dark enough for us to see Regulus before it sets.

I hope that some of you are in the correct locations to see those events. Of course, now that we’ve taken a look at them here, it doesn’t matter! Even if you’re in the wrong location like I am, we’ve now got an idea of what those events would look like. I hope you enjoyed this piece, if you did then please do like it. If you like this kind of content, then please subscribe to this website and my YouTube channel. Thank you very much for reading and hopefully I’ll see you back here next time.