Scruton Sky at Night – July 2021

The night skies are still very light, making celestial viewing difficult. But with the passing of the Summer Solstice in June we will be gradually getting shorter days and hence darker nights. Between the 1st and the 31st of July the sun will rise about 40 minutes later and will set about 30 minutes earlier meaning that the day will be 1 hour and 18 minutes shorter by the month end.

There will be several conjunctions between the Moon and various planets, for example with Mercury on the 8th, with Venus on the 12th and with Jupiter on the 26th. A conjunction is an apparent meeting or passing of two or more celestial bodies as seen from Earth. As explained, however, the light skies may make for difficult viewing.

I do hope you got some glimpses of the partial solar eclipse last month – the cloudy skies were very frustrating!