Skywatch July 8-14: Monday, look for the nebula ring near Vega | Metro and region

Monday: Without the moon in the sky tonight, try to spot the Ring nebula. The nebula is the remains of a star that has lost its outer layers of gas and has expanded into space. To locate the nebula, find Vega and the constellation Lyra. Lyra is diamond-shaped and the nebula is between the two most southern stars of the diamond. With a telescope, sweep between these two stars in search of a weak ring, from where the nebula gets its name.

Tuesday: We are now in the teeth of the summer and he definitely feels like that on the outside. In the northeast tonight, the summer triangle is visible, consisting of three bright stars Altair, Deneb and Vega. Vega is the brightest and is about 55 degrees above the horizon at 9:45 pm. Deneb is about 25 degrees lower left of Vega, and Altair is about 30 degrees lower right than Vega.

Wednesday: This morning, the thin crescent moon is in the eastern sky. The new moon is coming tomorrow, so today only 3 percent of the sunny side of the moon is visible.

Thursday: Tonight at different times, four planets are visible in the sky. At 9:30 pm, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn are visible across the sky. The mercury is low in the west followed by Venus farther up the horizon. Jupiter is visible in the southern sky and Saturn is in the southeast. An hour later, Venus is much lower in the west and Mercury is lying, but Mars is now visible to the south-southeast.

Friday: Friday the 13th, Jupiter will lose one of his moons. If you look at Jupiter through a telescope at 10 pm, four moons are visible, but by 11 pm it will appear to be only three. This is because the moon on the west side of the planet will slide into the shadow of Jupiter and be lost from our field of vision.

Saturday: Tonight, the thin crescent moon is near the planet Mercury. Both objects are low in the western sky but should not have much difficulty locating. At 21:30, the pair is separated by 2 degrees.