July 21st to July End

July 2026 Summary

July started off with a mixture of sun and cloud, with a little bit of rain. I took the usual sun and moon photos, Venus, deep sky objects, a comet and a phone camera shot that showed the faint constellations of Sagitta and Delphinus.

Sun

The sun is still quite well-placed in July from the northern hemisphere and started the month quite active.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55375985351/in/album-72157666438967194

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55377008977/in/album-72157666438967194/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55378350005/in/album-72157666438967194/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55381931361/in/album-72157666438967194/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55387992054/in/album-72157666438967194/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55393817068/in/album-72157666438967194

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55397343691/in/album-72157666438967194

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55417950894/in/album-72157666438967194/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55433938611/in/album-72157666438967194

 

Moon

Planets

July was not a good month for planets, with only Venus showing in the evening sky. It was shrinking in phase but increasing in apparent size.

·       Venus July 2nd

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55376810265/in/album-72157668899804626

·       Venus July 30th

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55376810265/in/album-72157668899804626

Saturn and Neptune reappeared in the late evening sky. My attempt at Saturn was poor but I caught Neptune for the first time since it disappeared into the sunset.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55433089004/in/album-72157668899804626

Dwarf Planets/Asteroids

Constellations

I have taken better constellation photos than this one of the Summer Triangle. What is remarkable is that I took it using a low-end smartphone. Not only does it show the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra but it also shows the faint constellations of Del-hinus and Sagitta, the first for me with that setup.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55409065389/in/dateposted-public/

Deep Sky

Due to the lack of true darkness, July is not a good month, so I concentrated on some of the brighter objects.

·       NGC6645 in Sagittarius:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55375485177/in/album-72157666438989044

·       M22 in Sagittarius

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55378624943/in/album-72177720325141895

·       M29 in Cygnus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55386705811/in/album-72177720325141895

·       M39 in Cygnus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55389505207/in/album-72177720325141895

·       NGC6888 in Cygnus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55391821609/in/dateposted-public/

·       M2 in Aquarius

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55392134335/in/album-72177720325141895

·       IC5146 in Cygnus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55391958804/in/album-72157666438989044

·       M27 in Vulpecula

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55397551884/in/album-72177720325141895



·       NGC 6755 in Aquila

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55399635316/in/album-72157666438989044

·       NGC6709 in Aquila

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55401119338/in/album-72157666438989044/

·       Wizard Nebula (NGC7380) in Cepheus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55411606001/in/album-72157666438989044

·       M15 in Pegasus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55425442340/in/album-72177720334531745/

·       M14 in Ophiuchus

https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippughastronomer/55429131262/in/dateposted-public/

 

Transient Events

July 2026 Photo Album

July 2026 Full Report

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Updated Web Pages

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Home Page

Monthly Summaries

Messier Objects



July 31st 1135 GMT Sun


I took full disc and closeup videos of the sun with the Seestar S50, which I later stacked.






July 31st 0015 GMT Moon and Neptune


I took a full disc video of the moon with the Seestar S50 that I later stacked.




I photographed Neptune with the Seestar S50. It is near the bottom of the image in the centre.




July 29th 2130 GMT Moon and M14


I took a full disc video of the moon with the Seestar S50, which I later stacked.




I tried to find Pluto but could not, as it was in the moon's glare.

I aimed for the globular star cluster M14.



July 29th 1530 GMT Sun

I photographed the Sun with my Mak and DSLR at the usual settings of 1.54 metres focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. Well, I thought I did but had way oveexposed the solar disc. It is what happens when you rush a shoot.


July 28th 2145 GMT Moon and M71


The moon was nearly at full phase and I took a video with the Seestar S50, which I later stacked.


With the bright moonlight, I chose the target as the globular star cluster M71 in Sagitta. It looked very similar ro a photo I took in May 2026.



July 27th 1205 GMT Sun


I took full disc and closeup videos of the sun with the Seestar S50.




July 27th 2345 GMT M15


It took longer for the sky to clear than the weather forecast suggested. I photographed the globular star cluster M15 with the Seestar S50. I did 30 minutes integration, less than the two hours earlier in the month but stacking the sub-exposures seemed to produce a slightly better result.




July 25th 1145 GMT Sun


I photographed the sun with the Seestar S50, by taking full disc and closeup videos, which I later stacked.





July 25th 0040 GMT Saturn


I took shots of Saturn with the Seestar S50 in planetary and stargazing mode to try to capture the planet and moons. The result was somewhat underwhelming, although I was quite sure I had captured its largest moon, Titan.




July 24th 2200 GMT NGC7063


I photographed the open star cluster NGC7063 with the Seestar S50.




July 24th 2145 GMT Moon and Antares


I used both my phone camera and DSLR camera at 300mm focal length, ISO800 and 1/30 second exposure to capture the moon with Antares.




July 24th 2045 GMT Moon


Again, I had trouble finding the moon with the Seestar S50 with nothing to align on but was getting better with practice. Unfortunately, my usual magic combination of PiPP and Autostakkert (Registax was still unavailable) did not work, so I processed a single still image, instead.


I also caught the edge of the moon with Antares.





July 24th 1650 GMT Sun 


I took 35 images of the sun with the Mak and DSLR at 1.54 metres focal length, ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure.




July 23rd 0925 GMT Sun 

I took 25 images of the sun with my Mak telescope and DSLR camera at 1.54 metres focal length. ISO 100 and 1/500 second exposure. I detected the sunspots but the focus was out.



July 22nd 2200 GMT NGC 7160


I used the Seestar S50 to capture the open star cluster NGC7160 in Cepheus. The integration time was 36 minutes.




July 22nd 2045 GMT Moon

I had a lot of trouble finding the moon with the Seestar S50 but managed to find it manually and shot a full disc video.




July 21st General Note


I have had to start a new blog, as I was not able to connect to my old one on this new laptop. Also, Windows 11 will not (yet!?) let me install Registax 5 nor Deep Sky Stacker. I am using Autostakkert and Sequator for everything so far and it seems OK.


July 21st 2225 GMT M52


I photographed the open star cluster M52 in Cassiopeia with the Seestar S50. I stacked 403 images in Autostakkert and finished in GraXpert and GIMP.




July 21st 2040 GMT Moon


The Seestar S50 did not find the moon. Unfortunately, no stars were visible, so I had to go into Scenery mode and navigate to the moon using manual movement. I eventually took a full disc shot and video.



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