Stargazing: Spread out planetary alignment

Venus, seen here in the night sky near a crescent moon in China, is also known as the "morning star". Photo / Getty Images

First the first few days of July, the planetary alignment will still be visible, just a bit more spread out.

Saturn is the only planet in the evening sky.

It rises around 9pm at the beginning of the month and around 7pm at the end. It looks like a medium-bright, cream-coloured star, all on its own among the faint stars of Capricornus.

The near-full moon will be above Saturn on the 15th and below it on the 16th.

Jupiter rises around 12.30am at the beginning of the month and around 10.30am at the end.

It is the brightest "star" in the late-night sky until Venus appears near dawn.

Jupiter shines with a steady golden light and hardly ever twinkles.

The moon will be above Jupiter on the night of July 18-19 and below it on the next night.

Mars rises before 2am all month. It is about the same brightness as Saturn and orange-red in colour. It is slowly brightening as we catch up on it.

The moon will be close to Mars on the morning of the 22nd. At dawn Saturn, Jupiter and Mars make a line across the northern sky.

Venus, the brilliant "morning star", is rising later as it moves to the other side of the sun. At the beginning of July it rises in the northeast around 5.30am.

At that date Mercury might be seen an hour later, rising below and right of Venus.

Mercury quickly slips into the dawn twilight as it rounds the far side of the sun on the 17th to reappear in the evening sky.

By the end of the month Venus is rising just 70 minutes before the sun. The thin crescent moon will be near Venus on the mornings of the 26th and 27th.

In the last week of July Mercury begins its best evening sky appearance of the year.

On the 25th it will be setting toward the northwest 40 minutes after the sun.

By the 31st it is setting 70 minutes after the sun. It is the brightest "star" in that part of the sky. The crescent moon will be near Mercury on the 30th.

Sirius, the brightest star, sets in the southwest as twilight ends, twinkling like a diamond. Canopus, the second-brightest star, is also in the southwest at dusk.

Midway down the northern sky is orange Arcturus. It sets in the northwest around midnight, twinkling red and green as it goes. Vega rises in the northeast around 9pm. It is on the opposite side of the sky to Canopus: low in the north when Canopus is low in the south.

The Milky Way is brightest and broadest in the east toward Scorpius and Sagittarius. In a dark sky it can be traced up past the Pointers and Crux, the Southern Cross, fading toward Sirius.