Highlights of the Summer Sky
Illustration Credit & Copyright:
Universe2go.com
Explanation:
What can
you see
in the night sky this summer?
The featured graphic gives a few highlights for Earth's northern
hemisphere.
Viewed as a clock face centered at the bottom, early (northern) summer
sky events fan out toward the left, while late summer events are
projected toward the right.
Objects relatively close to
Earth
are illustrated, in general, as nearer to the cartoon figure with the
telescope at the bottom center -- although almost everything pictured
can be
seen without a telescope.
As happens during any season, constellations appear the same year to year, and meteor showers occur on or near the same dates.
For example, like last year, the stars of the
Summer Triangle
will be nighttime icons for most the season, while the
Perseids meteor shower
will peak in mid-August, as usual.
Highlights specific to this summer's sky include that
Jupiter will be visible after sunset during June,
and Venus
will shine brightly in the evening sky during July and August.
Saturn and
Mars should be visible during much of this season's night,
with Saturn appearing in the direction opposite the Sun in late June, and Mars at
opposition in late July.
Finally, a
total lunar eclipse should be visible to anyone who can see the Moon in late July.
Source: NASA