Three planets hover close together with a bright star in our western sky this weekend. Venus, the brightest, appears in the middle between red Mars on the viewer's left and Mercury on the extreme right. The fairly bright star Regulus appears right above Venus. As close as they appear to each other, their distance from us is extreme.
Venus is the closest at only 33 million miles away. No celestial object other than the moon gets close.
Mercury is 108 million miles away and Mars is a distant 213 million miles away.
Regulus, in the zodiacal constellation Leo, wins the prize for distance. The star is 77 light years away. Light from that distant star took 77 years to get here.
Moon
The crescent moon appears fairly high in our eastern sky this weekend. It slip from crescent to gibbous by the end of the weekend and dominate the sky in the zodiacal constellation Virgo well into the coming week.
| Day | Sunrise | Sunset |
|---|---|---|
| Fri., July 21 | 5:24 | 8:10 |
| Sat., July 22 | 5:25 | 8:09 |
| Sun., July 23 | 5:26 | 8:08 |
| Mon., July 24 | 5:27 | 8:07 |
| Tues., July 25 | 5:28 | 8:06 |
| Wed., July 26 | 5:29 | 8:05 |
| Thurs., July 27 | 5:30 | 8:05 |
| Fri., July 28 | 5:31 | 8:04 |
| Day | Max (Fº) | Min (Fº) | Inches |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 14 | 83 | 70 | T |
| July 15 | 75 | 69 | 0.26 |
| July 16 | 82 | 72 | T |
| July 17 | 81 | 69 | 0.36 |
| July 18 | 85 | 72 | T |
| July 19 | 81 | 72 | 0.00 |
| July 20 | 85 | 67 | 0.00 |
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