Summer nights in July are perfect for dark sky adventures with family and friends. Take your binocular or telescope along to intrigue and educate, while sharing views of our local galactic neighbors along the glowing band of the Milky Way. Here are Orion's top choices for this month.
Southern Delta Aquariid Meteor Shower
Active annually between July 12 and August 23, with the peak on July 29-30, it is close to New Moon making 2022 an excellent opportunity to observe this shower. With an average of 16 meteors per hour at a medium speed of 25 miles per second, it is thought to be generated by the debris trail of Comet 96P/Machholz. Best window for activity is the week centered on July 30th.
New Moon
Occurring on July 28th, the dark sky window opens a week prior with the Moon at 3rd Quarter rising at 12:53 A.M. on the 21st. This allows for several hours of darkness beginning at astronomical twilight and ending at 10:10 P.M.
Two premier objects in binoculars or telescopes are the Messier Catalog globular star clusters M13 and M22 in Hercules and Sagittarius. Our Milky Way galaxy contains up to a few hundred globular clusters of varying size, density and brightness. Compare these two great summer targets, found readily on our DeepMap 600 Folding Star Chart.
The Summer Milky Way
Get yourself away from city lights to a location with a good eastern horizon, and watch the star clouds and dark lanes of our neighboring spiral arm in the Milky Way rise and arc overhead as it transits during the night. With a pair of 50mm binoculars or small telescope many objects in the famous Messier Catalog (listed in the DeepMap 600) will be available for your viewing. If you've never been away from the "light dome" of your city, seeing the swath of the Milky Way arc overhead is a revelation.
July Challenge Object
This is a great challenge for experienced observers. It's been said that the jet of light, famous in photographs, emanating from the core of M87 can be observed visually in telescopes possibly as small as 10" from a dark sky location, on the clearest of nights.
Everyone that learns about supernovae explosions becomes fascinated by the thought of a star spectacularly destroying itself. Don't worry as our Sun is not large enough to do so! You can, however, see the remnants of such an event, using a small telescope from a dark site. The Cygnus Loop, known as the Veil Nebula, consists of New General Catalog (NGC) entries NGC 6960, 6992, 6995, 6974, 6979 and IC 1340 (Index Catalog). Mostly viewed are the two bright arcs known as the Witch's Broom and Waterfall. Find the Witch's Broom at the star 52 Cygni. Using an Oxygen III (OIII) filter will darken the background while allowing the glowing strands of ionized gas to be viewed. This object is even visible in smaller telescopess from a dark site, but large ones will reveal a wealth of detail.
All objects described above can easily be seen with the suggested equipment from a dark sky site, a viewing location some distance away from city lights where light pollution and when bright moonlight does not overpower the stars.
