{"id":2986,"date":"2023-07-01T07:24:19","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T07:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/?p=2986"},"modified":"2023-07-01T07:24:19","modified_gmt":"2023-07-01T07:24:19","slug":"griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-july-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/2023\/07\/01\/griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-july-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Observatory Sky Report through July, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/JUL_2023_Sky_Report.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between July 1 and July 31, 2023. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California.<\/p>\n

Mercury<\/strong> sets in the west at 8:17 p.m., PDT, and the sun sets at 8:09 p.m., PDT, on the 1st<\/sup>, and so the planet is unobservable. The planet sets later each night. On the 31st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 7:55 p.m., PDT, and Mercury sets at 9:10 p.m., PDT. On that date, the planet is 62-percent illuminated and seven arcseconds wide, and so a magnification of 200x is needed to see its disk. \u00a0Do not observe any planet when it comes close to the sun, for the danger to the eyes is great.<\/p>\n

Venus<\/strong> sets in the west at 10:33 p.m., PDT, on the 1st<\/sup>. Venus is 31-percent illuminated and 34 arcseconds wide. On this date, Venus is 3.5 degrees west of Mars. The distance between them increases each night. On the 16th<\/sup>, Venus is 3.5 degrees west of Regulus, the brightest star in Leo the Lion. On the 31st<\/sup>, Venus sets at 8:27 p.m., PDT, and is six-percent illuminated and 53 arcseconds wide. The changes to its appearance can be seen with a small telescope.<\/p>\n

Mars<\/strong> is in Leo the Lion. On the 1st<\/sup>, Mars sets in the west at 10:47 p.m., PDT, and is 95-percent illuminated and 4.2 arcseconds wide, too small to see as a disk in most telescopes. On the 31st<\/sup>, Mars sets at 9:38 p.m., PDT. The planet continues to shrink in size for the rest of this year.<\/p>\n

Jupiter<\/strong> is in Aries the Ram on the 19th<\/sup>. On the 1st<\/sup>, Jupiter rises in the east at 2:06 a.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, Jupiter rises at 12:21 a.m., PDT, and is 40 arcseconds wide. On the morning of the 11th<\/sup>, Jupiter will be four degrees east of the crescent moon.\u00a0 The distance between them decreases to two degrees as the day progresses, but both will set long before the sun sets. A magnification of 50x will show the Red Spot, and the four bright Galilean moons may be seen moving back and forth, roughly in a line centered on Jupiter.<\/p>\n

Saturn<\/strong> is in Aquarius the Water Bearer. On the 1st<\/sup>, the planet rises in the east-southeast at 11:17 p.m., PDT, and on the 31st<\/sup>, the planet rises at 9:15 p.m., PDT. Saturn is 19 arcseconds wide. A magnification of 50x is needed to see the rings and Saturn\u2019s largest moon Titan.<\/p>\n

Uranus<\/strong> is in Aries the Ram. On the 1st<\/sup>, Uranus rises in the east-northeast at 2:41 a.m., PDT, and on the 31st<\/sup>, Uranus rises at 12:46 a.m., PDT.\u00a0 On the 15th<\/sup>, Uranus is at Right Ascension 3h<\/sup> 18m<\/sup> 23s<\/sup> and declination +17\u00b0 56\u02b9 43\u02ba. A magnification of 150x is needed to see its 3.5-arcsecond-wide disk.<\/p>\n

Neptune<\/strong> is in Pisces the Fishes. On the 1st<\/sup>, the planet rises in the east-southeast at 12:13 a.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, Neptune rises at 10:11 p.m., PDT. On the 15th<\/sup>, Neptune is at Right Ascension 23h<\/sup> 52m<\/sup> 5s<\/sup> and declination -2\u00b0 12\u02b9 44\u02ba.\u00a0 A magnification of 150x is needed to see its 2.3-arcsecond-wide disk.<\/p>\n

Full moon occurs on the 3rd<\/sup>, last quarter on the 9th<\/sup>, new moon on the 17th<\/sup>, and first quarter on the 25th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

SPECIAL EVENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Southern delta Aquariid<\/strong> meteor shower occurs from July 18 to August 21. The meteors will peak from the night of the 30th<\/sup> through to the morning of the 31st<\/sup>. Unfortunately, the moon will be 95-percent full and will interfere with observation. These are usually faint meteors that lack both persistent trains and fireballs. The parent object might be the comet 96P\/Machholz.<\/p>\n

The alpha Capricornid meteor shower<\/strong> occurs from July 7 to August 15 with a “plateau-like” maximum centered on the 31st<\/sup>. The peak will occur from the night of the 30th<\/sup> through to the morning of the 31st<\/sup>. This shower is not very strong but is notable for the number of bright fireballs produced during its activity period. The parent object is the comet 169P\/NEAT.<\/p>\n

A Lunar-X event<\/strong> happens on Monday, July 24th<\/sup>, at 10:20 p.m., PDT.\u00a0 Lunar-X is the raised rim of a few craters that are illuminated by the sun. It appears as a white X-shaped feature on the dark half of the first quarter moon, just west of the terminator, the line between the illuminated and the dark portions of the moon. Lunar-X will be visible for a few hours. Binoculars or a small telescope will be needed to see it.<\/p>\n

Follow All Space Considered and Griffith Observatory on Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, and Twitter<\/a> for updates on astronomy and space-related events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/JUL_2023_Sky_Report.mp3 This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between July 1 and July 31, 2023. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California. Mercury sets in the west … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-skyreport"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2988,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2986\/revisions\/2988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}