The Moon’s eastward motion carries it near magnitude –2.2 Jupiter tonight. Our satellite, which now sports a noticeable gibbous phase, stands 4° above the planet as twilight fades to darkness. If you point a telescope at Jupiter, you’ll see spectacular cloud-top detail on a flattened disk that spans 39″ across the equator. You’ll also see the gas giant’s four biggest and brightest moons.

Perhaps no month better epitomizes summer in the Northern Hemisphere than July. And this month finds the season’s namesake asterism, the Summer Triangle, on prominent display. The trio’s brightest member, Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp, stands nearly overhead shortly before midnight. The asterism’s second-brightest star, Altair in Aquila the Eagle, then lies more than halfway from the southeastern horizon to the zenith. Deneb, the luminary of Cygnus the Swan, marks the Summer Triangle’s third corner. Although it is this asterism’s dimmest star, it’s the brightest point of light in the entire northeastern sky.

Sunday, July 22

Magnificent Saturn reached its peak less than a month ago, when it appeared opposite the Sun in the sky, and our view of the ringed planet remains spectacular. It is on display nearly all night among the background stars of northern Sagittarius, hanging in the south-southeast as darkness falls and climbing highest in the south around 11 p.m. local daylight time. Saturn continues to shine brightly, too, at magnitude 0.1. When viewed through binoculars, you’ll find the Trifid Nebula (M20) 3.2° to the west, with the even brighter Lagoon Nebula (M8) 1° south of the Trifid. Open cluster M25 resides 5.0° northeast of the planet and globular cluster M22 is 4.8° east-southeast of the ringed world. But the best views of Saturn come through a telescope, which reveals the planet’s 18″-diameter disk surrounded by a dramatic ring system that spans 41″ and tilts 26° to our line of sight.