Must sees in the July night sky

After what seems like a long period of cloudy weather, lets looks forward to what the July night sky has to offer. Hopefully the weather will clear up and we’ll have plenty of time to appreciate Kauai’s dark skies. You can help keep Kauai’s night sky dark by checking around your house for stray or unneeded light. Try to point your outdoor lighting downwards or shield it, consider motion sensors, and choose lightbulbs with a low color temperature (more yellow). You may be surprised how many stars you can bring out in your own backyard, and your neighbor may appreciate it too!

Last month Jupiter was at opposition, this month it is Saturn’s turn. Opposition means Saturn will be exactly on the opposite side of Earth from the sun, and so will be visible all night. Look for it low in the east in the early evening, appearing bright and yellowish. Jupiter will also be visible, by far the brightest object in the night sky after the moon. Look for it high in the east after sunset.

Jupiter and Saturn are also the most impressive through a telescope. Seeing Saturn’s rings for the first time is an unforgettable experience. Jupiter appears like a mini solar system. Check it through the scope throughout the night and see its large bright moon’s change position. Some space trivia – Jupiter and Saturn both have moons bigger than the planet Mercury!

The constellation Hercules will be high overhead in the early evening throughout June, noted by the four bright stars that make up the “keystone” in its center. Hercules is located between the very bright stars Vega and Arcturus. It contains the globular cluster M13. July is a great month for observing globular clusters, as many of the most impressive one’s are visible through a telescope early in the evening in July.

A globular cluster is a dense spherical collection of up to a million stars. They tend to orbit around our galaxy, outside the Milky Way’s main disk, and so usually are very distant. Each globular cluster contains stars which are all about the same age and very old, as old as the Milky Way itself, suggesting that they formed along with our galaxy. Other prominent globular clusters visible in July are Omega Centauri, far to the south in the constellation Centaurus, and M5 near the constellation Serpens. We in Hawaii are lucky to have a good view of Omega Centauri, it is too far south for most of the mainland to see. A really dark sky and a good eye can find it with no instrument, but through a telescope it will be revealed as an enormous ball of stars seemingly packed in impossibly tight.

Kauai Educational Association for Science and Astronomy will be hosting its monthly public starwatch at the Kauamakani school softball field on Saturday, July 27. Check out our website at keasa.org for the full schedule.