The July full moon, also known as the Thunder Moon, occurs on July 21, at 6:17 a.m. EDT , according to the. The near-full moon shares the evening sky with Mercury, which will be at its greatest apparent distance from the sun that day. in New York City, but farther south the moment of full phase occurs before then. For example, in Charleston, South Carolina, moonset is atfrom Earth and is fully illuminated.
From more equatorial locales, such as Cartagena, Colombia, the sun sets earlier still, at 6:27 p.m., and by 7 p.m. Mercury is 15 degrees above the western horizon; the planet sets in Cartagena at 8:07 p.m. local time. Mars rises at 3:16 a.m. in Melbourne and is followed by Jupiter at 4:13 a.m. As in the Northern Hemisphere, the planets and Aldebaran form a rough triangle, but this time it is facing the other way; Mars will be above and to the left of Jupiter and Aldebaran above it and to the right. The Pleiades will be below and to the slight left of Mars. , Deneb, and Altair, are high in the east.
If one turns exactly opposite from Polaris and looks due south, by 10 p.m. one can see a bright reddish star about 22 degrees above the horizon and a bit to the west. This is, the heart of Scorpius, the Scorpion. Even with the full moon nearby it is easy to see; to the right of Antares one can see three stars in a roughly vertical line that are the Scorpion's claws, and going left one can follow a curve of stars that describes the Scorpion's back and tail.