Earth Reaches 94.5 Million Miles From Sun as Venus, Mars and Moon Mark July Sky

Q: What hidden cosmic jewels can a simple pair of binoculars reveal within the Summer Triangle's vast expanse this week?

A simple pair of binoculars can reveal several rewarding targets inside the Summer Triangle this week, especially under dark skies before the July 14 new moon. The easiest payoff is the Milky Way itself. The galaxy runs through the Triangle, between Vega, Deneb and Altair, and binoculars will turn that pale band into dense star clouds and rich fields that are hard to appreciate with the naked eye alone. This week’s relatively dark early evening skies make that especially favorable. One standout target is the Coathanger, or Collinder 399, roughly midway between Vega and Altair. In binoculars it appears as a neat little pattern of stars shaped like an upside-down hanger, making it one of the most distinctive asterisms in the region. Another good binocular object is Messier 71 in Sagitta, near Altair. It will not resolve into individual stars with basic binoculars, but under a dark sky it shows up as a small, soft, fuzzy patch — a compact globular cluster often called the Angelfish Cluster. Observers with especially dark skies can also try for the Dumbbell Nebula, M27, in Vulpecula. In binoculars it appears as a faint misty glow rather than a detailed nebula, but it is one of the brightest deep-sky objects in the Summer Triangle area. Near Deneb, binocular users may also glimpse the broader glow of the North America Nebula region, though that is a more challenging target and strongly depends on very low light pollution.

2 articles · Updated · Forbes · Jul 6

July 6 puts Earth at aphelion, 94.5 million miles from the sun, while a fading full moon opens a 12-night stretch of darker evening skies for stargazing.
July 9 brings Venus to within 1 degree of Regulus after sunset, and July 11 pairs a 13%-lit waning crescent moon with Mars, Aldebaran and the Pleiades before dawn.
Mid-northern observers also get a rare midsummer Milky Way window this week because moonlight is largely out of the evening sky; the best view comes about two hours after sunset toward the southeast.
New York City's Manhattanhenge adds a terrestrial highlight, with full sun alignment on Saturday at 8:20 p.m. EDT and half sun alignment on Sunday at 8:21 p.m. EDT.
The darker-sky run builds toward a July 14 new moon and the July 17 start of the Perseid meteor shower.