This month, Mars takes center stage, flanked by Saturn slightly to the east, and Jupiter, much further to the west.



If you haven�t been out to see Mars gleaming like a ruby in the evening sky, it�s not too late. In fact, July is a great time to glimpse our red neighbor. When darkness falls, Mars is in the south at its greatest height above the horizon, making it easy to locate.



Mars is experiencing a phenomenon known as retrograde motion this month. Planets generally migrate eastwardly in relation to the background stars over time. But as Earth approaches and overtakes an outer planet on its faster orbit, it causes that planet to move west against the background stars for a time. After Earth has passed, the planet resumes its eastward motion.



Over the last couple of months, Mars has been moving westward, but this month Mars resumes its eastward trek and starts closing the gap with nearby Saturn. The ringed world gleams with a yellowish hue and outshines everything in the region, except for Mars. Throughout July, observers can watch Mars inch closer and closer to Saturn from night to night. By month�s end the gap will have narrowed considerably. Below and right of Saturn, look for the bright reddish star Antares.



While Mars puts on quite a show this month, Jupiter still holds its own in the southwestern sky at dusk. The largest planet is easy to locate amid the much fainter background stars. This month, Jupiter receives an Earthly visitor. Since 2011, NASA�s Juno spacecraft has been on route to Jupiter and is due to arrive there today. For the next year, Juno will orbit the giant planet, studying its atmosphere and magnetic field before a scheduled crash into Jupiter in October 2017.



In the final week of July, low in the west after sunset, bright Venus and much fainter Mercury, return to the evening sky, rounding out the month with a showing of all five visible planets. Next month they gain some altitude making them easier to view.



Brad Nuest is a space science educator at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson. He writes a monthly column for The News. Email: bradn@cosmo.org.