Mon July 28, 2025 NAME THAT CONSTELLATION – JULY
Can you identify the twelfth largest constellation? It is bordered on the north by Ursa Major and Leo Minor; on the south by Hydra, Sextans, Crater the Cup and Virgo; on the west by Cancer the Crab; and on the east by Virgo again and Coma Berenices. Its brightest star is Regulus, called the King Star. This part of space is also the source of a meteor shower which peaks in mid-November. Many beautiful galaxies are found within its borders, one of which is a favorite of mine – the hamburger galaxy. In myth, the Babylonian hero Gilgamesh fought it, and so did Hercules, who defeated it after a month-long battle. And it’s also associated with the prophet Daniel. This evening the waxing crescent moon and the planet Mars can be found below its tail. Can you name this constellation, the fifth sign of the zodiac? The answer is Leo the Lion.
Tue July 29, 2025 DELTA AQUARID METEOR SHOWER
A meteor shower is going on right now. It’s called the Delta Aquarid meteor shower, so named because these meteors come out of the constellation Aquarius, near its fourth brightest star, Delta Aquarii. Most meteor showers are caused by tiny bits of comet dust in space. As the dust hits the earth’s upper atmosphere, it vaporizes, which then heats the air the dust passes through, lighting it up as a momentary streak of light in the night sky – that’s a meteor, also called a shooting star or falling star. Most meteor showers are best seen after midnight, but if you go outside late in the evening you should see a few once the moon has set. Get away from bright streetlights, dress warmly, protect yourself against mosquitoes, lie back in a lounge chair and look up high in the east for best results. This is a long-lasting shower which will continue until mid-August; but the best viewing will probably be the next two nights.
Wed July 30, 2025 GALILEO SEES SATURN
On July 30th 1610 Galileo set up a small, hand-made telescope on his veranda in Padua, and aimed it at a bright yellow, star-like object in the night sky. So what did he see? Just a small round blob of light, and on either side, two even smaller blobs. Were these two large moons of Saturn? Did the planet have handles? Or ears? He couldn’t tell. His crude telescope only magnified objects about 30 times, which wasn’t enough to resolve the mysterious somethings that flanked the sixth planet. Galileo recorded what he saw, then moved on to other discoveries. It wasn’t until 1655 that better telescopes resolved those blobs into rings. Now, 400 years later, even small telescopes are good enough to resolve the rings of Saturn; if you go outside in the late evening you can find the ringed planet low in the eastern sky in the constellation Pisces.
Thu Jul 31, 2025 THOMAS HARRIOT BEATS GALILEO
Toward the end of July in the year 1609, the Englishman Thomas Harriot made the first detailed drawings of the moon as seen through a telescope. Galileo would make his drawings several months later, not quite as good as Harriot’s, but while Galileo became famous, hardly anyone has ever heard of Harriot. Galileo published his discoveries in a widely read book, The Starry Messenger. Harriot wrote manuscripts, but never published a book for public consumption. Harriot led an interesting life, accompanying Sir Walter Raleigh to the Roanoke colony in America, serving as mathematician, navigator and interpreter. He was briefly imprisoned in 1605 on account of suspicions that he had been part of the assassination attempt on King James 1. He was innocent and released, but this may have made him less eager to publish, not wishing to draw attention to himself.
Fri Aug 1, 2025 THE DOG DAYS
These are the "dog days" of summer. The sun was highest in our noon sky on June 21st, but it takes the air a month to really sizzle. These are called the dog days because it's at this time of the year that you can first catch sight of the brilliant star Sirius, also known as the Dog Star, low in the southeast, rising just before the sun. Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky, partly because it’s a big, hot star, but mainly because it’s closer to us than most other stars, only about 54 trillion miles away! Its name is from the Greek word, "seirios," which means, “the scorcher.” Sirius is in the constellation Canis Major, the Big Dog, and that’s why it’s called the Dog Star. Sirius was feared and hated by the ancient Greeks and the Romans, who thought that when the sun and Sirius got together, their combined heat burned up the crops, drove dogs mad, and made everybody miserably hot.
