Bakersfield Night Sky — July 19, 2025
Mars is low in the west on the left side of Leo in the early evening. Mars drops down too low to see a bit after 10 p.m. The summer constellations of Scorpius, Sagittarius, Ophiuchus, and Hercules are due south at that time. Pegasus is beginning to rise up in the east while Cygnus, Lyra, and Aquila with the bright stars Deneb, Vega, and Altair that make up the Summer Triangle in them, respectively, are higher up in the southeast.
Saturn becomes visible shortly before midnight. Venus rises around 3:30 a.m. between the two horns of Taurus. Jupiter rises an hour and a half later at 5 a.m. with the stars of Gemini. This is during nautical twilight, so the sky is bright enough to see the horizon but still dark enough to see the brighter stars.
The moon is a thin waning crescent tonight rising in the east shortly after 2 a.m. (July 20) right in the middle of the Pleiades star cluster at the shoulder of Taurus. Over the next hour and 45 minutes (i.e., until 3:45 a.m.), the moon will pass through Pleiades. That will be a beautiful sight through binoculars! The following night, the crescent moon will be next to Venus, slightly less than a fist width at arm’s length apart from each other, with the moon to the upper right of Venus. An even thinner crescent moon will make a triangle with Venus and Jupiter on the pre-dawn morning of July 22. The thin sliver moon will be equidistant from the two brightest planets.
New moon phase happens on July 24, so the last days of July will see a waxing crescent moon climbing higher in the west in the evening sky. It passes by Mars on July 28 and the bright star Spica of Virgo on July 30.
The Delta Aquariids meteor shower peaks on the nights of July 28 to 29. A bit on the weaker side, you might see at most 15 to 35 meteors per hour. As the name suggests, the radiant of the meteor shower (from where the meteors appear to shoot out), is near the Delta star of Aquarius, also known as Skat. That star rises around 10:40 p.m. and the moon will be just a waxing crescent during the peak nights, so the entire night should be good for meteor observing. More meteors will be seen after midnight, though, because your local part of Earth is facing the direction of its orbital motion around the Sun. Meteoroids moving at any speed can hit the atmosphere. Before midnight your local part of Earth is facing away from the direction of orbital motion, so only the fastest moving meteoroids can catch up to Earth and hit the atmosphere. The minor shower Alpha Capricornid will also add a few meteors in the mix at the end of the month.
The William M Thomas Planetarium is closed for the summer break at Bakersfield College. I hope you’ll be able to enjoy a truly-dark sky filled with stars!
—
Nick Strobel
Director of the William M Thomas Planetarium at Bakersfield College
Author of the award-winning website www.astronomynotes.com
