Summary of Upcoming Night-Sky Events
If last month’s planet parade whet your stargazing appetite, you’re in luck: the July 2022 roster of night-sky events will deliver even more awe.
This month’s lineup of nighttime events runs the gamut from a mid-month supermoon, late-month meteor showers, and one of the Big Apple’s most highly anticipated summer celebrations: Manhattanhenge, a sunset spectacular named and celebrated by world-renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Grab your camera and binoculars, and prepare to be wowed by July 2022’s array of night-sky wonders. Here are the ones we’re most excited about.
July 11-12: Manhattanhenge
This month, the best NYC show isn’t necessarily on Broadway; it’s on a handful of Manhattan’s east-west oriented streets. The spectacle? Manhattanhenge, a time when the sunset aligns with those east-west oriented streets, framing the setting sun perfectly between the Big Apple skyscrapers, according to space-news resource EarthSky.
The best viewing locations include 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, and 57th streets, per EarthSky. The further east along these streets the better. Expect the best sunset display at 8:20 p.m. ET on July 11 and 8:21 p.m. ET on July 12. Manhattanhenge will return January 11 and 12 with “Reverse Manhattanhenge,” when the sunrise creates a similar effect in the early morning.
July 12: NASA Releases James Webb Space Telescope First Images
At 10:30 a.m. ET on July 12, NASA will unveil the long-awaited first (and full-color) images from its James Webb Space Telescope, which launched in December 2021. The telescope includes cutting-edge technology that can examine closer solar-system objects to old, distant galaxies that date back to the early universe, just several hundred million years post-Big Bang, according to Space.com. NASA will share these images via a live event on July 12, with additional live sessions later in the day and week.
July 13: Supermoon
July’s full moon will continue Earth’s supermoon streak; it’s the third of four supermoons in a row, according to a Space.com interview with NASA eclipse scientist Fred Espenak. This month’s stunning lunar show will take place on July 13, with next month’s on August 12. According to Espenak, this kind of consecutive supermoon extravaganza isn’t rare. “Every 14 months or so, we get two or more likely three to four” supermoons in a row, he told Space.com.
To catch this supermoon — the closest supermoon of 2022 — The Old Farmer’s Almanac recommends looking to the southeast after sunset on July 13. The publication also notes the July full moon earned its name, Full Buck Moon, because the male deer’s (buck’s) antlers are fully growing by this month.
July 28-29: Delta Aquariid Meteor Shower Peak
Prepare to be awestruck by this month’s Delta Aquariid meteor shower, which produces up to 20 meteors per hour at its strongest, according to SeaSky.org. While the shower runs from mid-July to late August, it peaks around the middle of that timeframe; this year, its most active time is the night of July 28 into July 29.
Unlike a supermoon, viewing a meteor shower requires a spot with clear, dark skies. This year’s shower peak also coincides with the new moon, which means those dark skies will be even darker — and the meteor shower even brighter.
July 30: Alpha Capricornid Meteor Shower Peak
The Alpha Capricornid meteor shower stays active throughout much of summer, from July 3 to August 15, but its grandest showing is July 30. At this point, it reaches its peak with roughly five meteors per hour around 8 a.m. ET, according to In-the-Sky.org. Like Delta Aquarids, you’ll need a dark-sky spot to fully enjoy this out-of-this-world show.
