This fine spell of dry weather is providing Marylanders with a great opportunity for stargazing. We got home late last night after dinner with the honeymooners and I couldn't help noticing what a great show the moon and Jupiter were putting on in the southern sky.

The moon is nearly full. It will be officially full just before 4 a.m. Friday. This will be the Hay Moon, or the Thunder Moon, if you prefer, for reasons that seem clear enough. But it's already quite beautiful, low in the southern sky late in the evening.

Why so low? It's because the Northern Hemisphere tilts toward the sun in the northern summer. By extension, that means the night side of the planet tilts away from the side of the solar system opposite the sun - the night side.  And that's where the moon is when it's full. So, we're leaning away from the full moon, placing it very low in the southern sky in summer. (In winter it's the reverse - sun low in the day, full moon very high overhead at midnight.)

Anyway, the southern sky is also where we find Jupiter this month. We're just past Jupiter's opposition on July 9. That's when it stood directly opposite the sun, rising in the southeast as the sun sets in the west. Opposition is also when Earth brings us to our closest approach to Jupiter of the year, about 384 million miles.

And that means it's the best time of the year to catch a glimpse of the giant gas bag. Which brings us back to me and my favorite schoolteacher, getting home late last night.

I stepped inside and immediately excused myself. I grabbed the 10x75 binoculars from the closet, switched off the porch light and headed back outside.

Jupiter is impossible to miss this week. It gleams big and bright in the southern sky in the late evening, the brightest star-like object out there. In the binocs, I could just make out at least two of the planet's four Galilean moons. They're tiny pinpricks of light on either side of Jupiter's disk. And Jupiter does appear as a disk in binoculars at opposition, not just a point of light, like the stars caught in the same field of view.

The moon and Jupiter will be closest together Thursday evening, a very striking pair for anyone out walking the dog or just enjoying the night air. Unfortunately, the moon will not pass directly in front of Jupiter this week, as it does in the NASA animation below. 

Weather forecasters say this unusually dry summer weather will continue through Friday. So stargazers can enjoy some particularly pleasant time outdoors under the stars. Mars and Saturn are still in view, very close together and low in the western sky after sunset.