What’s Out Tonight?

 July 2024 
Sky Notes
★  About 90 minutes after Sunset ★

Planets
None of the naked eye planets (Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) are visible in the early evening. Saturn rises in the east around 11:30 PM but it is not ​conspicuously bright. Jupiter rises in the east about 3 AM. In a month, Venus will become more conspicuous in the west after sunset.

Constellations
Scorpius is due south and hovers right above the horizon. Its curved tail is easy to identify and is closest to the horizon. The reddish star Antares is above it. The Summer Triangle is laying on its side in the east (it is an isoceles triangle composed of the stars Vega, Deneb and Altair—it is large!). The star Vega is on top and is the brightest of the three stars. The star Deneb is lower and to the left—it is the top star in Cygnus, the Northern Cross. The Cross points inward to the Triangle. Altair is the third star of the Triangle and is lower and to the tight of Vega. Vega is the 5th brightest star in the whole sky and makes up the small constellation Lyra that contains the famous and favorite Ring Nebula.