What's in the sky July 2025

 Read for next month? Here are some things to look out for. I will update this page regularly as I find more things of interest to add. 

	WHAT’S IN THE NIGHT SKY FOR July 2025? (Northern Hemisphere)
July 2nd	For next few days look out for noctilucent clouds, shimmering, slivery blue clouds in NW after sunset.
July 3rd	Earth reaches aphelion 2054 BST – point in Earth’s orbit furthest from sun. Also, Mercury at greatest eastern elongation from the Sun (PM) With 25 degrees separating the Sun and Mercury, this is probably best opportunity to see the planet in the evening sky this year - should be easily seen, roughly 14 degrees over the western horizon 15 minutes after sunset. If the planet isn’t readily apparent, try scanning the horizon with binoculars to help you locate it.
July 4th	Conjunction: Venus and Uranus  will be separated by 2.4 degrees in morning. Venus easy to spot low above ENE horizon around 0330 whilst Uranus will be tricky to pick out in dawn twilight
July 5th	Venus And The Pleiades (AM) Venus is now passing the M45 Pleiades in the morning sky - use lower powered binoculars if you’d like a close view of them together - around 90 minutes before dawn - as the sky will need to be dark enough for the cluster to be easily visible - a good opportunity to capture an image of the two together.
July 7th	Red super Giant Antares is 2.3 degrees NW of this evening’s 91% lit waxing gibbous moon at 2300BST, low above Southern horizon
July 9th	Bright globular cluster NGC 6752 (mag +5.4) well placed in evening sky for next few nights; reaching highest point around midnight local time
July 10th	Full ‘Buck’ moon low in sky – illusion time when moon appears larger than it actually is
July 13th	Glimpse Venus above ENE horizon around 0330 BST
July 17th	The summer triangle asterism is high up, due south around 0100 BST – look for three bright stars – Deneb, Vega and Altair
July 19th	M45 Pleiades cluster close to moon tonight and tomorrow night as well
July 20th	The Waning Crescent Moon passes in front of the Pleiades star cluster in the early hours in North America.
July 23rd	Early alarm today mag -1.8 Jupiter at 4.2 degrees south of slender 3% lit waning crescent moon, both low above NE horizon around 0400 BST
July 24th	New Moon week (July 24 or 25)  - Try to capture the Galactic Centre of the Milky Way. It's the last month of optimal visibility!
July 25th	Short brief window of darkness – look for M8 bright Lagoon nebula and companion M20 Triffid nebula to north of teapot asterism
July 26th	Rising Venus will be 0.6 degrees SSW of Crab nebula M1 – dawn twilight and low altitude will make it tricky to catch
July 28th	Mars in evening sky joined by waxing crescent moon low above western horizon around 2200 BST
July 30th	Southern Delta Aquariid meteor shower reaches peak activity – around 25 meteors per hour
July 31st	Saturn rises around 2300 BST, reaching good altitude above SSE horizon before dawn.