234 Ranch Road 1050, Concan, TX 78838, US
Night Skies - Did you know?
What’s going on in our night sky this July?
🌠 Meteor Showers: Delta Aquarids Peak Late July, offering up to 10 meteors per hour under ideal dark-sky conditions. Best viewing is after midnight, looking southward toward the constellation Aquarius. A waxing crescent Moon (about 33% illuminated) will be in the sky, so some fainter meteors may be obscured, but brighter ones should still dazzle. In August the Perseids meteor shower, a much more impressive event, peaks the night of August 12-13. This year viewing will be hampered by the bright moon most of the night. Viewing in the evening before moonrise might reveal a few but most will be happening towards sunrise. Plan ahead and don't miss Perseids, the biggest and best meteor shower of the year. Summer is the best time for looking for falling stars and a few satellites.
🌕 Moon & Celestial Pairings: July 22: A crescent Moon forms a triangle with Venus and Jupiter in the eastern sky just before dawn. July 28: The Moon and Mars appear close together in the evening sky, with Mars in Virgo. July 30: The Moon hangs just below Spica, the brightest star in Virgo.
🌑 Moon Phases: July 10: The Full Buck Moon rises—named for the time when male deer begin growing new antlers. The Buck Moon is also known by other names like Thunder Moon or Hay Moon, depending on cultural traditions. July 24: New Moon.
🌅 Sunrise & Sunset: July 1: Sunrise at 6:42 AM with Sunset at 8:28 PM. July 31: Sunrise at 6:39 AM and sunset at 8:34 PM. Enjoy the long, warm evenings perfect for night sky viewing.
🪐 Planets: Venus: Bright in the eastern sky before dawn, especially vivid around July 9 and 22. Jupiter: Also visible in the pre-dawn east, pairing with Venus and the Moon mid-month. Saturn: Rises earlier each night—visible by 11 PM on July 1, and by 9 PM at month’s end. Look southeast for its golden hue. Mars: Appears in the evening sky, best seen after sunset in the west, near Spica later in the month. Neptune and Uranus: Visible with binoculars or telescopes in the early morning hours, but faint.
You can see a lot with your naked eyes or a set of binoculars.
July’s dark skies over Garner State Park offer a stellar lineup of deep-sky wonders beyond our solar system—no telescope required for some of the best.
🌌 Naked Eye Highlights
- The Summer Triangle: This iconic asterism—Vega, Deneb, and Altair—dominates the eastern sky after dusk, acting as a celestial signpost to the Milky Way.
- The Milky Way Core: On moonless nights, the brightest stretch of the Milky Way arches overhead, especially vivid around midnight. Look south to southeast for the galactic center near Sagittarius.
- Scorpius & Antares: The curving tail of Scorpius and its red heart, Antares, glow low in the southern sky, offering one of the most recognizable constellations of summer.
- Hercules & the Keystone: High overhead, the Keystone asterism marks the body of Hercules. It’s a great reference point for spotting deep-sky objects with binoculars.
🔭 Binocular Highlights
- Messier 13 (Hercules Globular Cluster): Just off the Keystone, this dense ball of hundreds of thousands of stars is a showstopper in binoculars.
- The Lagoon Nebula (M8): Nestled in Sagittarius, this glowing star-forming region appears as a faint, misty patch—best seen under dark skies near midnight.
For more celestial objects to see, check out the back of a current month's sky map at the Visitor Center.
Look for a "Sky Tour" program given at the park occasionally when the skies are dark, and the weather is good. You might also listen the Sky and Telescope's monthly Sky Tour podcast. A good place to observe the heavens at the park is from the west side of the Excess Vehicle Parking Area that's just north of the Visitors Center.
Our skies aren't as dark as they used to be.
New neighbors, new businesses install lights to light up their properties and light up the whole Frio Canyon in the process. From the top of Old Baldy, you can see light domes of Uvalde, Hondo, Bandera, Kerrville, and yes, even Concan and Leakey. Texas towns have their light bubbles. Do us all a favor, let them know, "Illuminate only what is needed with only as much warm light as is needed." If you see lights shining upward or too bright, let's do better. If you want to continue to see stars, tell them you want and expect darker skies. We can make our skies darker.
Count the number of stars in the Little Dipper. If you can see all seven, you have a dark sky. If you can only see the end of the little Dipper's handle, the North Star (Polaris), you have a lit-up city sky.
We are working on making our skies darker.
We want to make Garner an International Dark Skies Park. Unfortunately, it isn't currently dark enough. It takes some work, a real campaign. Educating our visitors, neighbors, students, businesses, and government officials; adding light shields; updating light fixtures; measuring, recording, and reporting light readings and other progress steps; getting the right color LED's; seeing what we can do to make the skies dark again. Interested in volunteering? Use the "Contact us" form at the bottom of the home page or call 830-232-5999.
Here is a YouTube link to an interesting presentation on keeping our skies dark in west Texas given by Steven Hummel to the Houston Astronomical Society members. It shows how the National Park Service is mapping our dark skies and measuring not just the darkness overhead but the intensity and spectrum of light that is being added to that of the stars, moon, planets, and weather amounts. Also note that the oil and gas industry has reduced its foot print in the Pecos area. Some installations reduced their skyglow 98%. Can we do this in the Frio Canyon as well?
You can help educate others to keep our skies dark.
Spread the word, set an example. Shine light only when and where you need it. Only shine as much as you need. Use the warmest color light to minimize light scattering. If light is needed for security or emergency purposes, use video or motion activated lighting.
Do we really need a blinding flood light lighting the heavens at every barn, parked car, business sign, steeple, or flag?
Here are a few links to answer this question:
The International Dark Sky Association's (IDA's) webpage of outreach materials.
https://darksky.org/resources/
DarkSky Texas (IDA's Texas chapter)
https://darkskytexas.org/common-sense-solutions-resources/
Hill Country Alliance webpage on preserving the night skies
https://hillcountryalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021_THC_NightSkies_Paper_FYI.pdf
Are you interested in astronomy as a hobby?
Check out this on-line article in The Buzz Magazines was published recently about amateur astronomy and features interviews with many Houston Astronomical Society (HAS) members. Joe Khalaf of HAS shared this.
Friends of Garner has a telescope
While the scope might not be a large spectacular instrument, it generates oohs and ahs when viewing Jupiter, Saturn, or the moon up in the Garner night skies.
Several astronomy clubs come to view the skies above Garner. Check the park's calendars for other star parties, often held on a warm Saturday night around the occurrence of a new moon when skies are at their darkest.
We can offer sessions to let members get familiar with this and other telescopes. After a checkout, take the scope home or to a campsite, host a park star party, or to outreach events outside the park.
Friends of Garner Notices & Updates
Come check out the updates in the Visitor Center!
Coming events:
FOG Board Meeting 8/13/25, 5pm
Summer Hayrides