Jun 30, 2026 · 6 min · 6 segments
We're back into the holiday season in the 'Petersphere', and this month Sky Watch is going to get ambitious! Usually, you’re encouraged to observe a handful of stars in a particular constellation that…
Assuming you're away from light pollution, take a look towards the south on a clear July evening and you'll see what appears to be a faint band of cloud stretching up from the horizon, arcing overhead and then fading down toward the north.
Depending on which source you consult, the Milky Way contains between 100 billion to 400 billion stars.
Billions upon billions of stars, probably many of them with their own families of planets and moons.
If you've got access to binoculars or a telescope, you can resolve the myriad points of light that make up part of this vast star system.
A lot of stars are forever hidden from our view by gas and dust between us and the centre of the galaxy, and within which new stars are continuously being born.
In front of the Milky Way, you'll see the Summer Triangle Asterism, its three vertices marked by bright stars Deneb at upper left, Vega at upper right, and Altair at the bottom.
The swan's head is marked by Albireo, which in a telescope resolves to a beautiful binary star, One part vivid blue, the other part golden yellow.
Near the southern horizon is the galactic centre, home to a supermassive black hole with the matter-of-fact name of Sagittarius A-star.
Now, there's a proposal that the centre of the Milky Way is actually a vast concentration of mysterious, dark matter.
Assuming you're away from light pollution, take a look towards the south on a clear July evening and you'll see what appears to be a faint band of cloud stretching up from the horizon, arcing overhead and then fading down toward the north.
Depending on which source you consult, the Milky Way contains between 100 billion to 400 billion stars.
Billions upon billions of stars, probably many of them with their own families of planets and moons.
If you've got access to binoculars or a telescope, you can resolve the myriad points of light that make up part of this vast star system.
A lot of stars are forever hidden from our view by gas and dust between us and the centre of the galaxy, and within which new stars are continuously being born.
In front of the Milky Way, you'll see the Summer Triangle Asterism, its three vertices marked by bright stars Deneb at upper left, Vega at upper right, and Altair at the bottom.
The swan's head is marked by Albireo, which in a telescope resolves to a beautiful binary star, One part vivid blue, the other part golden yellow.
Near the southern horizon is the galactic centre, home to a supermassive black hole with the matter-of-fact name of Sagittarius A-star.
Now, there's a proposal that the centre of the Milky Way is actually a vast concentration of mysterious, dark matter.
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