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This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report through July 31st, 2020. Here’s what’s happening in the skies of southern California.
Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) is still an interesting sight through binoculars, but it is fading and getting interference from the brightening moon. Soon it may be challenging to find.
On the 29th, The comet passes from the southern fringes of Ursa Major the Great Bear into the territory of the faint constellation Coma Berenices, Bernice’s Hair. The comet moves from beneath the handle of the Big Dipper to a point below the region a little left of the handle’s leftmost star.
After you complete your comet watching, the moon and planets are positioned to keep you observing all night long!
On the 24th the moon, in the west, is 40 degrees from comet NEOWISE, in the northwest. The waxing moon becomes first quarter on the morning of the 29th. On the following nights it is gibbous. On the 31st, the moon is located to the west of Jupiter, when it sets at 3:01 a.m.
The gleam of the brilliant planet Jupiter, and that of slightly-fainter Saturn, make an eye-catching pair of objects above the southeast horizon at nightfall. Jupiter leads Saturn on their nightly arc across the southern sky, and reach their highest point in the south at about midnight. The two planets set in the west-southwest shortly before sunrise.
A telescope can reveal the stunning rings of Saturn, the four largest of Jupiter’s moons and its striped bands of clouds. Jupiter’s colorful oval storm, the Great Red Spot, will face telescopes of observers in the Pacific time zone at 10:00 p.m. on July 25th, 28th, and 30th.
Another brilliant planet, Mars, is visible in the eastern sky by midnight. At dawn it is 58 degrees high in the south. A well-adjusted telescope may show the dusky markings of Mars as well as the planet’s crisp, white, South Polar Cap.
The brightest planet, Venus, blazes in the east after it rises at 2:50 a.m. At 5:15 a.m., it is 27 degrees high. A telescope may show its crescent phase.
The nearest planet to the sun, Mercury, is visible at 5:15 a.m., when it is located more than 5 degrees above the east-northeast horizon, and 28 degrees to the lower left of Venus. Mercury’s tiny disk may show a gibbous phase under high magnification.
During late-night and early morning hours, meteors may occasionally be noticed streaming from the southern constellations Aquarius the Water Carrier and Capricornus the Sea Goat. The meteors are the result of the weak annual Delta Aquariid and Capricornid meteor showers. These showers maintain a trickle of activity visible from late July into mid-August.
Because of measures in place that are intended to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 Corona virus, Griffith Observatory remains closed until further notice. Consequently, all public telescopes are closed, and all public events have been cancelled. Please check the Griffith Observatory homepage for current information and continued updates of the situation.
See our What’s in the Sky? webpage for additional sky observing information.
Follow The Sky Report, All Space Considered, and Griffith Observatory, on Twitter for updates on astronomy and space-related events.
From Griffith Observatory, I’m Anthony Cook, and I can be reached at Anthony.Cook@lacity.org.