Ephemeris: 06/30/2026 – Previewing the skies of July
This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for International Asteroid Day, Tuesday, June 30th, the 118th anniversary of the Tunguska event in Siberia. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 31 minutes, setting at 9:32, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:01. The Moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 10:31 this evening.
Let’s preview July’s skies. The Sun, having reached its northern solstice, is beginning to slide southward again, at first imperceptibly, then with greater speed. The daylight hours will decrease from 15 hours and 30 minutes tomorrow to 14 hours 41 minutes at month’s end. The daylight hours will be slightly shorter south of Interlochen, and slightly longer to the north. The altitude of the Sun at local noon, when the Sun is due south, will decrease from 68 degrees today to 63 degrees at month’s end. The Sun will be a degree lower in the Straits area. Despite the warmth, the Earth will reach its greatest distance from the Sun next Monday the 6th.
The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.
Addendum
July Evening Star Chart
The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 11 PM EDT in the evening and 4 AM on the 16th for the morning chart. These are the chart times. Note that Interlochen/Traverse City is located approximately 45 minutes behind our time meridian, West 75° longitude. (An hour 45 minutes behind our daylight saving time meridian during EDT). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere you may have to set it to 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than the current time.
Note, the chart times of 11 PM and 4 AM are for the 15th & 16th respectively. For each week before these dates, add ½ hour (28 minutes if you’re picky). For each week after the 15th, subtract ½ hour, or 28 minutes. The planet positions are updated each Wednesday on this blog.
July Morning Star Chart
Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical
| EDT | |||||||
| Morning | Twilight | Evening | Twilight | Dark | Night | Moon | |
| Date | Astro. | Nautical | Nautical | Astro. | Start | End | Illum. |
| 2026-07-01 | 3h35m | 4h37m | 23h00m | 0h03m | – | – | 96% |
| 2026-07-02 | 3h36m | 4h38m | 22h59m | 0h02m | – | – | 91% |
| 2026-07-03 | 3h37m | 4h39m | 22h59m | 0h01m | – | – | 84% |
| 2026-07-04 | 3h38m | 4h40m | 22h59m | 0h00m | – | – | 76% |
| 2026-07-05 | 3h39m | 4h41m | 22h58m | 23h59m | 23h59m | 0h06m | 67% |
| 2026-07-06 | 3h41m | 4h42m | 22h57m | 23h58m | 23h58m | 0h24m | 57% |
| 2026-07-07 | 3h42m | 4h42m | 22h57m | 23h57m | 23h57m | 0h42m | 46% |
| 2026-07-08 | 3h44m | 4h44m | 22h56m | 23h56m | 23h56m | 1h02m | 35% |
| 2026-07-09 | 3h45m | 4h45m | 22h55m | 23h55m | 23h55m | 1h27m | 24% |
| 2026-07-10 | 3h47m | 4h46m | 22h55m | 23h54m | 23h54m | 1h57m | 15% |
| 2026-07-11 | 3h48m | 4h47m | 22h54m | 23h52m | 23h52m | 2h38m | 7% |
| 2026-07-12 | 3h50m | 4h48m | 22h53m | 23h51m | 23h51m | 3h33m | 2% |
| 2026-07-13 | 3h51m | 4h49m | 22h52m | 23h49m | 23h49m | 3h51m | 0% |
| 2026-07-14 | 3h53m | 4h50m | 22h51m | 23h48m | 23h48m | 3h53m | 1% |
| 2026-07-15 | 3h55m | 4h51m | 22h50m | 23h46m | 23h46m | 3h55m | 5% |
| 2026-07-16 | 3h57m | 4h53m | 22h49m | 23h45m | 23h45m | 3h57m | 11% |
| 2026-07-17 | 3h58m | 4h54m | 22h48m | 23h43m | 23h43m | 3h58m | 19% |
| 2026-07-18 | 4h00m | 4h55m | 22h47m | 23h42m | 23h42m | 4h00m | 28% |
| 2026-07-19 | 4h02m | 4h57m | 22h45m | 23h40m | 23h58m | 4h02m | 38% |
| 2026-07-20 | 4h04m | 4h58m | 22h44m | 23h38m | – | 4h04m | 48% |
| 2026-07-21 | 4h06m | 4h59m | 22h43m | 23h36m | 0h18m | 4h06m | 58% |
| 2026-07-22 | 4h08m | 5h01m | 22h42m | 23h35m | 0h39m | 4h08m | 67% |
| 2026-07-23 | 4h10m | 5h02m | 22h40m | 23h33m | 1h05m | 4h10m | 76% |
| 2026-07-24 | 4h11m | 5h04m | 22h39m | 23h31m | 1h37m | 4h11m | 83% |
| 2026-07-25 | 4h13m | 5h05m | 22h37m | 23h29m | 2h16m | 4h13m | 90% |
| 2026-07-26 | 4h15m | 5h06m | 22h36m | 23h27m | 3h04m | 4h15m | 95% |
| 2026-07-27 | 4h17m | 5h08m | 22h35m | 23h25m | 4h01m | 4h17m | 98% |
| 2026-07-28 | 4h19m | 5h09m | 22h33m | 23h23m | – | – | 100% |
| 2026-07-29 | 4h21m | 5h11m | 22h32m | 23h21m | – | – | 100% |
| 2026-07-30 | 4h23m | 5h12m | 22h30m | 23h19m | – | – | 97% |
| 2026-07-31 | 4h25m | 5h14m | 22h28m | 23h17m | – | – | 93% |
Twilight calendar was generated using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
See my blog post: Twilight Zone for the definitions of the different periods of twilight here: https://bobmoler.wordpress.com/2018/09/27/.
NASA Calendar of Planetary Events
Jul 1 We Venus: 41.1° E
4 Sa 3:51 AM Moon Ascending Node
6 Mo 10:59 AM Aphelion: 1.0166 AU
7 Tu 3:29 PM Last Quarter
9 Th 10:36 AM Venus-Regulus: 1° N
10 Fr 6:54 PM Moon-Pleiades: 1.1° S
12 Su 9:17 AM Mars-Aldebaran: 5.3° N
12 Su 11:18 AM Moon North Dec.: 28° N
12 Su 9:24 PM Mercury Inferior Conjunction
13 Mo 3:50 AM Moon Perigee: 359100 km
14 Tu 5:43 AM New Moon
16 Th 8:07 PM Moon-Regulus: 0.5° N
16 Th 8:27 PM Moon Descending Node
17 Fr 12:31 PM Moon-Venus: 2.1° N
20 Mo 11:21 PM Moon-Spica: 2.5° N
21 Tu 7:06 AM First Quarter
24 Fr 5:00 PM Moon-Antares: 0.6° N
25 Sa 12:45 PM Moon Apogee: 405500 km
25 Sa 11:56 PM Moon South Dec.: 28.1° S
28 Tu 6:02 AM Delta Aquarid Shower: ZHR = 20
29 We 8:28 AM Jupiter Conjunction
29 We 10:36 AM Full Moon
31 Fr 7:54 AM Moon Ascending Node
All event times are given for UTC-4:00 Eastern Daylight Saving Time thereafter.
Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA’s GSFC),
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html
If you go to the above site you can print out a list like the above for the entire year or calendar pages for your time zone.
Note that the site is now kept up for archival purposes. Fred Espenak retired from NASA several years ago and has his own site, AstroPixels, which contain the same information: http://astropixels.com/almanac/almanac.html. However, it uses standard time all year.
Fred passed away a year ago, on June 1, 2025. RIP.
Sun and Moon Rising and Setting Events
LU Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
July, 2026 Local time zone: EDT
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE | SUN SUN DAYLIGHT| TWILIGHT* |MOON RISE OR ILLUM |
| | RISE SET HOURS | END START |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Wed 1| 06:01a 09:32p 15:30 | 10:57p 04:35a | Rise 11:01p 96%|
|Thu 2| 06:01a 09:31p 15:30 | 10:56p 04:36a | Rise 11:26p 92%|
|Fri 3| 06:02a 09:31p 15:29 | 10:56p 04:37a | Rise 11:47p 86%|
|Sat 4| 06:02a 09:31p 15:28 | 10:55p 04:38a | Rise 12:05a 78%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 5| 06:03a 09:30p 15:27 | 10:55p 04:38a | Rise 12:23a 69%|
|Mon 6| 06:04a 09:30p 15:26 | 10:54p 04:39a | Rise 12:42a 59%|
|Tue 7| 06:05a 09:30p 15:25 | 10:54p 04:40a |L Qtr Rise 01:02a 48%|
|Wed 8| 06:05a 09:29p 15:23 | 10:53p 04:41a | Rise 01:26a 37%|
|Thu 9| 06:06a 09:29p 15:22 | 10:52p 04:42a | Rise 01:57a 26%|
|Fri 10| 06:07a 09:28p 15:21 | 10:51p 04:43a | Rise 02:38a 17%|
|Sat 11| 06:08a 09:28p 15:20 | 10:50p 04:45a | Rise 03:33a 9%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 12| 06:08a 09:27p 15:18 | 10:50p 04:46a | Rise 04:43a 3%|
|Mon 13| 06:09a 09:26p 15:17 | 10:49p 04:47a | Rise 06:04a 0%|
|Tue 14| 06:10a 09:26p 15:15 | 10:48p 04:48a |New Set 10:04p 1%|
|Wed 15| 06:11a 09:25p 15:13 | 10:47p 04:49a | Set 10:35p 4%|
|Thu 16| 06:12a 09:24p 15:12 | 10:45p 04:50a | Set 10:59p 9%|
|Fri 17| 06:13a 09:24p 15:10 | 10:44p 04:52a | Set 11:20p 17%|
|Sat 18| 06:14a 09:23p 15:08 | 10:43p 04:53a | Set 11:39p 26%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 19| 06:15a 09:22p 15:07 | 10:42p 04:54a | Set 11:58p 35%|
|Mon 20| 06:16a 09:21p 15:05 | 10:41p 04:56a | Set 12:17a 45%|
|Tue 21| 06:17a 09:20p 15:03 | 10:39p 04:57a |F Qtr Set 12:39a 55%|
|Wed 22| 06:18a 09:19p 15:01 | 10:38p 04:58a | Set 01:04a 65%|
|Thu 23| 06:19a 09:18p 14:59 | 10:37p 05:00a | Set 01:36a 74%|
|Fri 24| 06:20a 09:17p 14:57 | 10:35p 05:01a | Set 02:15a 81%|
|Sat 25| 06:21a 09:16p 14:55 | 10:34p 05:03a | Set 03:03a 88%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 26| 06:22a 09:15p 14:52 | 10:33p 05:04a | Set 04:00a 94%|
|Mon 27| 06:23a 09:14p 14:50 | 10:31p 05:06a | Set 05:04a 97%|
|Tue 28| 06:24a 09:13p 14:48 | 10:30p 05:07a | Set 06:11a 100%|
|Wed 29| 06:25a 09:12p 14:46 | 10:28p 05:08a |Full Rise 09:30p 100%|
|Thu 30| 06:26a 09:10p 14:44 | 10:26p 05:10a | Rise 09:52p 98%|
|Fri 31| 06:27a 09:09p 14:41 | 10:25p 05:11a | Rise 10:12p 94%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunset and sunrise
Generated using my LookingUp for DOS app.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 