[ad_1]
If you missed it last month, this week gives night owls another chance to watch the moon pass the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn.
Low to the south, Jupiter and Saturn gradually drifted apart after their great conjunction last December, when they appeared so close in the sky that they couldn’t be seen as separate objects. Jupiter currently resides in Aquarius, the water carrier, with Saturn sitting squarely in Capricorn, the goat.
Later that week, starting July 24, the Moon spends several days crossing these same constellations. The graph shows the view south from London at 0300 BST on July 25. That night, the moon will already be full one day and will therefore only begin its waning phase, although with 98.6% of its visible area illuminated, from our point of view it will be difficult to recognize that the moon is no longer full.
Over the following nights, however, the illuminated portion will decrease by about a tenth, and this will be clearly noticeable. The moon will first meet Saturn, then sail to Jupiter. From the southern hemisphere, the planets and the moon are much higher in the sky, appearing to the northeast, above the body and head of Pegasus, the flying horse.
[ad_2]
Source link