Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Tuesday, July 19th.  Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 6 minutes, setting at 9:21.   The moon, half way from full to last quarter, will rise at 11:11 this evening.  Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:15.

Let’s check out all the bright stars in the evening sky, as it gets dark tonight.  High in the west is the bright yellow-orange star Arcturus.  In the northwest is the Big Dipper,  whose curved handle points to Arcturus.  Straightening that curve to a spike will point to Spica a blue-white star low in the southwest.  The bright star to its right isn’t.  It’s the planet Saturn.  In the south is the red star Antares which usually twinkles merrily.  High in the east is the bright white star Vega.  To its lower right is Altair, and to its lower left the star Deneb.  Vega, Altair and Deneb make the Summer Triangle, whose rising in the east signals the coming of summer.  Always present for us in northern Michigan is Capella very low in the north.

* Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Bright Summer Stars. Created using Stellarium.

Click on the image to enlarge.  This is a whole sky chart.  The round edge is the horizon.  BTW the star Capella, very low in the north, is a winter star, but it’s visible all year round for folks north of 44 degrees north latitude.