The Backyard Astronomer: Embracing summer nights
Article content Although there are no predicted bright comets visible for the near future, the night sky is a never-ending stage to view celestial objects with a telescope, binoculars or just the naked eye. The easiest is, of course, the moon. On the night of July 11, look for a challenging slender four per cent thumbnail crescent low in the western sky, just after sunset. The following night, its illumination increases to nine per cent and is positioned to the upper left of Venus and tiny orange Mars very close to Venus at the lower left. This is a great time to see the ghostly unlit portion...