The Sky This Week - Thursday July 11 to Thursday July 18

The Full Moon is Wednesday, July 17. There is a partial lunar eclipse on the morning of the 17th. Mars is visible low in the evening twilight with Mercury below it briefly before Mercury vanishes in the twilight.  Jupiter is easily visible as the brightest object in the evening skies and is visited by the Moon on the 13th. Saturn, just past opposition, is high in the late evening skies and is visted by the Moon on the 16th.  Venus is lost in the twilight glow.

The Full Moon is Wednesday, July 17. There is a partial lunar eclipse on the morning of the 17th.

Evening sky on Saturday, July 13  as seen looking north-west from Adelaide at 18:20 ACST (60 minutes after sunset). Mars is close to the horizon. Mercury is lost in the twilight.

Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).

Sky at 20:00 ACST on Saturday, July 13 looking east as seen from Adelaide. Jupiter is past opposition, and high above the eastern horizon with the Moon nearby. Saturn is below the pair and just past opposition.

The left upper insert inset shows the telescopic
view of Jupiter at this time. Europa is about to transit the disk of Jupiter. The left lower insert is the telescopic view of Saturn at the same magnification.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time, click to embiggen.

Morning sky on July 17 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 07:00 ACST, at maximum eclipse. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time. (click to embiggen). The darkening of the Moon will be readily visible.

On the morning of July 17, there is a partial eclipse of the Moon. This is a reasonable partial eclipse which favours western Australia and the Central states, and though you have to get up early in the morning to see it, so Eastern Australians may wish to stay in bed as it is a week day and most of the eclipse is in twilight for them.

Venus is lost in the morning twilight and will return to the evening sky in September.

Mercury  is lost in the twilight.

Jupiter  Jupiter is now well past opposition. However, it is still well worth observing. Jupiter is easily visible as the brightest object in the north-eastern/northern sky (aside from the Moon) and is located just below the distinctive constellation of Scorpius and the bright red star Antares. It is visible all evening long and is a good telescope target in the evening, being highest above the northern horizon around 10:00 pm local time.The Moon is close to Jupiter on the 13th

Mars is in Cancer and very close to the horizon.

Saturn  climbs was at opposition on the 10th, when it was visible all night long. Saturn is below Jupiter and just below the “handle” of the “teapot of Sagittarius. It is best for
 telescopic viewing from just around 9 pm local time until the early morning and is highest above the northern horizon, when it is idea for telescopic imaging, shortly after midnight.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what’s up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/