The high number of supernovae tell us that, in addition to lots of star deaths, there must be lots of star births in this galaxy as well. This face-on spiral sits about 22 million light-years away in the far northern reaches of Cygnus, right at the constellation’s border with Cepheus. NGC 6946 is also known as the Fireworks Galaxy, thanks to the large number of supernovae astronomers have observed within it - eight in the last 100 years or so. Let’s celebrate Independence Day with some fireworks. At that time, our planet will sit 94.5 million miles (152 million kilometers) from the Sun. Plus, the reflection nebula IC 4604 surrounds this stellar pair, lending the region around them a subtle glow.Įarth reaches aphelion, the farthest point from the Sun in its nearly (but not quite) circular orbit, at 3 A.M. This star itself is an excellent small scope target, as it’s a binary system of two 5th-magnitude yellow stars separated by about 3". Rho Ophiuchi itself sits about 3° north-northwest of Antares. B44 is roughly 6.5° long, bordered on its eastern edge by 24 Ophiuchi. Dark nebulae are clouds of cold dust that block starlight from any suns sitting behind them, so they appear as dark swaths of sky where there are few stars. From there, look about 1.3° north to find the star 22 Scorpii, which sits at the western edge of the dark nebula Barnard 44. Pull out binoculars or use your small scope to take a tour of the 4°-wide Rho Ophiuchi region by first locating Antares, the bright red heart of Scorpius. With only a thin crescent Moon in the sky, this evening is a great time to explore the stunning Rho Ophiuchi region in the south, situated near - you guessed it - the star Rho (ρ) Ophiuchi in Ophiuchus the Serpent-bearer. And Saturn caps off the line in Capricornus, another 43° west of Jupiter and still sitting near 3rd-magnitude Deneb Algedi. The Red Planet is just 13' (0.2°) due south of 4th-magnitude Omicron (ο) Piscium this morning, though to catch this meetup, you’ll need to look 30 to 60 minutes earlier (at least) to catch them in a darker sky, before the star disappears as dawn begins to approach.Ĭontinuing outward, Jupiter sits 20.5° west of Mars, just at the border of Cetus and Pisces. Look roughly 43° west of Venus to land on magnitude 0.4 Mars. To Venus’ lower right is the bright red giant Aldebaran, which may still be visible in the growing twilight. The next planet in line, brilliant Venus (magnitude –3.9) sits 13.5° west (to the upper right) of Mercury. Its small disk has brightened over the past few weeks and is now magnitude –0.8, so as long as you have a clear view of the horizon, you should be able to spot it.
![face of mars from different angle face of mars from different angle](http://www.geocities.ws/tasosmit2001/Theface/face1998.jpg)
This morning, Mercury is just 4° high in the east some 20 minutes before sunrise. So, if you want to see this rare lineup before it disappears, this weekend may be one of your last chances.
![face of mars from different angle face of mars from different angle](https://www.atam.org/Figure4aBeardedMan.jpg)
The naked-eye planets still sit along the ecliptic in order of distance from the Sun in the predawn hours, but Mercury is quickly dropping out of sight as it moves toward a July 16 superior conjunction, when it will pass around the far side of the Sun. Hopefully you’ve been able to enjoy the early-morning parade of planets currently providing a view across the solar system. The Moon’s illumination is given at 12 P.M. *Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The small world will move just a few degrees against the background this month, sliding southwest toward several open clusters we’ll check back in with Aquitania in a few weeks. Several 10th-magnitude globular clusters float nearby, including NGC 6535 4.5° to the asteroid’s north-northwest, IC 1276 2.6° to its south-southeast, and NGC 6539 3° to its south. The asteroid itself is just over the border in Serpens Cauda, and roughly 0.5° east of a 6th-magnitude field star. Tonight, Aquitania sits a little less than 8° east of the 7th-magnitude globular cluster M14 in Ophiuchus.
![face of mars from different angle face of mars from different angle](http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4e67921b9091.jpg)
Such good alignments between Aquitania and Earth only happen every 100 years, so you won’t get another chance like we’ll have this month anytime soon. That means this small main-belt world is visible with a 3-inch scope under dark skies and only needs a 6-incher in regions with moderate light pollution. But this month, you can net a high-numbered asteroid with little effort: 387 Aquitania’s eccentric orbit is bringing it close to the Sun at the same time Earth is relatively far from our star.
![face of mars from different angle face of mars from different angle](https://scoreintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/DSC_0681-300x300.jpg)
So, lower-numbered asteroids were discovered first - and perhaps it should come as no surprise that these tend to be the biggest and brightest of the bunch. Asteroids are numbered in the order in which they were discovered.