Podcaster: Shane and Chris
Title: Actual Astronomy: The Observer’s Calendar for July 2025
Organization: Actual Astronomy
Link : https://actualastronomy.podbean.com/ ; https://www.deepskyeye.com/
Description: The Actual Astronomy Podcast presents The Observer’s Calendar for July 2025. In this episode we talk about how to see Mercury, the Moon as it pairs with Spica, Antares, Saturn, Jupiter, several carbon stars and some deep sky objects like M6&M7..
Bio: Shane and Chris are amateur astronomers who enjoy teaching astronomy classes and performing outreach where they help the eyes of the public to telescope eyepieces.
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Transcript:
The Observer’s Calendar for July 2025 on Episode 489 of the Actual Astronomy podcast. I’m Chris and joining me is Shane. We are amateur astronomers who love looking up at the night sky and this podcast is for everyone who enjoys going out under the stars.
MERCURY Very low in WNW in evening twilight, lost after
mid-month
VENUS In ENE morning twilight all month
MARS Very low in W, sets before 12 am
JUPITER Rises after 4 am in ENE, E at dawn
SATURN Rises in E before 1 am, high in S at dawn
July 1 – Canada Day!
JULY 2- First Quarter Moon
LUNAR X Visible near the crater Werner
July 3rd – Spica 0.8-degrees N of the Moon but must be for Hawaii
Lunar Straight Wall Visible this evening
July 4th – Independence Day!
Mercury Greatest Elongation 26-degrees from Sun in evening sky.
July 5th – Jewelled Handle visible on the Moon
July 7th – Antares 0.4-degrees N of Moon
July 10th – Full Moon
July 12th – Mare Orientale Visible on Moon
Carbon star T Lyr best tonight
July 13th – Cleomedes sunset rays visible on Moon
Spot Arcturus before sunset this week
July 16th – Saturn, Neptune and Moon congregate in morning sky
July 17th- Last Quarter Moon
Lunar Curtis X visible
July 21st – Carbon Star Z Psc best tonight
July 23rd – Jupiter 5-degrees S of Moon in morning sky
July 24th – Old crescent moon visible in East before sunrise
New Moon late in the day.
Stellafane convention this Weekend
July 25th – Carbon Star RU Vir best tonight
July 26th Carbon Star 5 Aur best in early morning
July 28th Mars 1.3-degrees N of Moon
July 29th – South Delta Aquariid Meteors test seen in predawn today and tomorrow ZHR = 25 likely associated with Comet 96P Machholz
NGC 6139, NGC 6281, M6&7 well placed
Conclude with an e-mail from Akshay, who is a new listener:
Hi Chris and Shane,
I hope you are doing well! I have been listening to the podcast since the beginning of the year and have really enjoyed your discussions on all things astronomy. I started amateur astronomy in November of last year, and have quickly become obsessed with the hobby. I wanted to thank you for creating the podcast – your discussions on observing and equipment have been a huge help as I navigate the vast array of telescopes, eyepieces, mounts and other gear on offer.
In my short observing journey, I have so far only been able to observe from large cities. Until recently I lived right next to New York City (in Jersey City, NJ), and I just moved to Atlanta, Georgia. My main observing instrument is an 8-inch Apertura dobsonian. I enjoyed looking at all the planets earlier in the year, and more recently have enjoyed some of the spring and early summer DSOs. I have honestly been surprised at how much can be seen from city skies, since I was not expecting to be able to see much beyond the planets. Recently I have been observing M13 as it gets higher in the sky. A couple of weeks ago, on a moonless night, I was astonished by how many stars I could see in the cluster at about 150-200 power with averted vision. I think globulars are currently my favorite class of DSOs – I have also enjoyed looking at M3, M5, M22, and M92. Do you have any advice on improving my observations of globulars? I have read that higher power can help, but I find that beyond about 200 power the image gets too dim for my eyes.
I am also looking to get out of the city to some darker skies, but I’ve been a bit nervous to go to my club’s dark sky site. It seems like people get really annoyed at any excess light! So far I have primarily used Stellarium on my phone to starhop. I use the Twilight app to dim the screen’s brightness so that I can barely see the screen and make the display red, but I’m unsure if that is enough. I recently did acquire the Pocket Sky Atlas and will try to starhop using that instead, but I really appreciate the ability to tune the visible magnitude and match the display to what I see in my finder on the apps. In your experience, do most people use paper maps/atlases to locate objects at dark sky sites?
Thanks again for the podcast! Excited to listen to the next episode.
Regards,
Akshay
Email from Alister:
Hey guys, I spent about 90 minutes on the Prancing Horse last night in binoculars. Not having much experience with this sort of thing, I used a blank starfield from Guide to save me from placing dots inaccurately, then added strong slants for dark, the density of slants trying for opacity, and side sweeps for bright background – of course there are zones that have both. Presumably I will tidy this up at home in the next year or three.
Wishing you clear skies!
Alister.
Concluding Message: Please subscribe and share the show with other stargazers you know and send us show ideas, observations and questions to actualastronomy@gmail.com
365 Days of Astronomy
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