July - a great time to use that new telescope!

 With the Venus transit behind us now, it seems that the astronomical skies are "calming down" - at least for now.  But that doesn't mean there is nothing to hunt down on any given night.  The sky is full of potential targets, whether using binoculars or a telescope, so let's take a look at what is coming up in July.

Unfortunately for you naked-eye viewers, there are no meteor showers scheduled for July.  The next one isn't until mid-August (the Perseids). However, with the full moon occurring on July 3, this leaves many of the early and mid-month evenings available for reasonably dark-sky constellation viewing.  Mars is currently making the transition into the constellation of Virgo right now, gradually drawing closer to Saturn in the sky.  At the same time, these two bright planets are beginning to appear lower and lower in the west as the weeks go on, so be sure to spot them before they are gone.

If you got a new set of nice binoculars or a telescope for Christmas and have been anxiously awaiting those warm summer nights to learn how to use it, this would be a great time to get it out. While you may not yet know what exactly to look at - particularly if your telescope isn't motorized - you can still learn the fine art of star-hopping. Find a star map online (free all-sky maps can be found here) or you could download one of any number of astronomy apps if you have a smartphone and you're ready to go. While your binocs or telescope will show more stars than may appear on your star map, you'll gradually get the hang of locating the next star by comparing relative positions and brightnesses. Nothing in astronomy comes easily, but learning is part of the fun. Once you are a master star-hopper, download maps of the Messier objects and push your equipment to the limit. If you are using binoculars for this, you may wish to purchase a tripod and mount for them to hold them steady.

 Star clusters are fantastic objects to point your viewing instrument at because they're generally bright enough to see even with small binoculars.  The globular cluster M13, for example, is high in the sky all night this month in the constellation of Hercules - hence its unofficial title "The Hercules Cluster."  The image below (courtesy of SEDS) will give you an idea of what to expect.

Of course, this is an image taken with a camera so your view through the eyepiece won't be so rich or saturated, but you may find that you prefer the eyepiece view even better!  As you examine its stellar population, think about the fact that this cluster is believed to be at least twice as old as our solar system and contains several hundred thousand stars all packed into an area roughly 150 light-years across.  Try to count the stars yourself to see how many you can see with your equipment.  Imagine what the night sky would look like if you lived on a planet orbiting one of these stars.  Then go exploring to see what else you can find!

Happy viewing!