The July night sky

Nights are getting longer again, bringing the first dark skies of summer. Look out for Saturn - more than a dot, even with binoculars

As the sun turns southwards, our nights begin to lengthen and the moonless spell later in July brings many of us our first dark skies of the summer. The chart shows the Plough in the NW as the Summer Triangle reaches the high meridian. Formed by the bright stars Vega, Altair and Deneb, in the constellations Lyra, Aquila and Cygnus respectively, it is bisected by the Milky Way, which arches high across our E sky from Sagittarius and Scorpius (SCO) low in the S to Cepheus, Cassiopeia and Perseus in the NE.