By James Maynard
Stardate 06:11:97
With July rapidly approaching, the plentiful harvest or summer objects comes into our view. The summer is one of the most beautiful times of the year for astronomy. These are some of the objects to look for as the hot weather approaches.
In the middle of July, look for the planets Uranus and Neptune in the south-eastern skies.
Neptune
is currently the most distant planet in the solar system. In the year 1999
Pluto will once again regain it's title of most distant planet.
Neptune will be rising first, at 8:30 pm by the middle of July. This frigid world will be shining at magnitude 7.8, making it about six times too dim to be seen with the naked eye. Look for it low in the southeastern sky, 10-degrees above the horizon at 10 pm by July 15. Neptune was discovered only 150 years ago by a man named Johann Galle, but was seen as early as Galileo, who passed it over as just another star in 1612.
By the middle of the month, Neptune will be just 2-degrees away from the globular cluster M-75.
This is a dim, small, collection of stars orbiting our parent galaxy, the Milky Way at magnitude 8.6, and measuring just six minutes of arc (1/10-degree) across, it is a challenge to find.
Uranus
will rise half an hour after Neptune, at 8 pm. It will be found on the east/southeasterly
sky, 8-degrees above the horizon at 10 pm on July 15, and 8.5-degrees away
from Neptune.
Uranus stands just shy of naked eye visibility, at magnitude
5.7. It was the first planet to be discovered in modem times, in the year
1781 by William Hershel, who went on to tabulate the New General catalog,
a collection of nebulous, cloud-like appearing objects. It became one of
the world's most widely used catalogs of what were later known
to be galaxies and nebulae.
When a nebula or galaxy is listed by an NGC number, it is referring to this catalog.
The skies of August are ruled by the king of the planets,
mighty Jupiter. In the middle of that month. 
Jupiter will be a healthy 21-degrees
above the horizon at 10 pm. The largest of the planets in our solar system
will greet our eyes at magnitude -2.8, more than six times brighter than
the brightest stars. Jupiter is a favorite target for novice amateur astronomers,
and always is a treat to gaze upon. The four largest moons of Jupiter (known
as the "Galilean moons" after Galileo, their discoverer) are the
easiest satellites of any world to see, other than Earth's lone natural
satellite.
The Perseid meteor shower is also in August, peaking in the early morning on the 12th.
This is among the year's most awaited meteor showers, and often proves spectacular. Look for it to start around the 10th of the month, and continue until the 14th. The Perseids produce around 90 "shooting stars'' per hour, but this year the moon will be in the southwest sky for evening observers, but will set just after midnight, leaving early morning observers with dark skies for their meteor viewing.
The Perseids were first shown to be a regular meteor shower by Edward Herrick In 1837.
Before this, it was believed that meteors were an atmospheric phenomena, like clouds and weather. This is the origin of our word "meteorology".
We will cover each of these objects in detail as they enter our sky. Watch for these articles as they appear over the course of the summer.
Clear skies, and good viewing.
James Maynard is a science student at Keene (NH) State College.
