The July Sky Show @ Dawn

This week, Science@NASA released this video highlighting the early morning sky show put on by Venus, Jupiter, and a few other objects. The video is self explanatory. I highly recommend you watch it, note some interesting dates and sights, and get up to view them.

I have been up by 5 AM a couple of times this week. The sky is already quite bright by then. The sun rises at 5:41 tomorrow. But, the brightest of the objects are still visible. For the best conditions with dark sky, get out there an hour before sunrise. You can see the rise and set times for a whole year for your location using this tool from the US Naval Observatory. (Add 1 hour for DST)

On one of those mornings this week, I set up the camera on the front porch for this shot. It was a tripod mounted camera. ISO was 160. Shutter was on delay and set to one fifth of a second. The white balance was tungsten bulb. Venus is the brightest. Jupiter is above it. Below and slightly left of Venus is the star Aldebaran. It is quite dim and might not appear on your monitor.

Compare it the Astronomy Picture of the Day. The image is from Brazil. Notice how the direction of alignment is so different. Brazil is quite a large rotation around the Earth from here in Iowa. Hence, the rotation of the alignment. Yes, the Earth is round.

Get up early and go outside. Look to the east. You will be rewarded with a beautiful and changing view in the days ahead. The one date I am especially looking forward to is Sunday July 15. The Moon will join the trio and the background stars for a special performance.