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What’s up in the night sky: July 2025

Welcome to our night sky monthly feature, where we focus on easy and fun things to see in the night sky, mostly with just your eyes. This month: morning and evening planets, and some groovy constellations.

All month: Super bright Venus is in the predawn east. Very bright Jupiter is low on the eastern predawn horizon, moving upwards toward Venus as the weeks pass.

All month:  Yellowish Saturn rises late in the evening in the east. 

All month: Reddish Mars is in the evening west, getting lower as the weeks pass.

The first half of the month: Mercury is low in the west after sunset.

July 4: Mercury is at its greatest elongation, meaning it will be highest above the horizon for this viewing period, making it the easiest time to see it. 

July 4, 2025 night sky snapshot
July 4, 2025 night sky snapshot In the evening west, reddish Mars, Regulus (the brightest star in Leo), and Mercury line up, approximately. (Pasadena, California. Latitude: about 34 degrees north.)Image: Bruce Betts/The Planetary Society using Stellarium

July 10: Full Moon

July 16: The Moon is near yellowish Saturn, rising in the middle of the night, and up fairly high before dawn.

July 18, 2025 night sky snapshot
July 18, 2025 night sky snapshot Throughout the month, in the evening south (as seen from the northern hemisphere), the easy-to-spot constellations of Sagittarius and Scorpius are nicely visible, though somewhat low to the horizon. (Pasadena, California. Latitude: about 34 degrees north.)Image: Bruce Betts/The Planetary Society using Stellarium

July 21: The crescent Moon is near super-bright Venus.

July 21, 2025 night sky snapshot
July 21, 2025 night sky snapshot In the predawn east, the crescent Moon is near Venus. Many bright stars are in that part of the sky, including those in Taurus and Orion. (Pasadena, California. Latitude: about 34 degrees north.)Image: Bruce Betts/The Planetary Society using Stellarium

July 28: In the evening sky, reddish Mars and the Moon are very close in the sky.

July 31, 2025 night sky snapshot
July 31, 2025 night sky snapshot In the predawn east, Jupiter gets higher above the horizon each night in July, growing closer to super bright Venus. The constellation Orion is nearby as well. (Pasadena, California. Latitude: about 34 degrees north.)Image: Bruce Betts/The Planetary Society using Stellarium
The Milky Way over Glacier Point, Yosemite National Park

Learn more about the Night Sky

Our journey to know the Cosmos and our place within it starts right outside our windows, in the night sky. Get weekly reports on what's visible and learn how to become a better backyard observer.

Bruce Betts

Bruce Betts

Chief Scientist / LightSail Program Manager for The Planetary Society
Read more articles by Bruce Betts