We passed aphelion, Earth's farthest point in orbit around the sun, on July 6. The eye can't detect it, but a camera shows that the sun around now appears at its smallest in our sky.
On spring mornings, from either hemisphere, you can't easily see Mercury. Peter Lowenstein in Mutare, Zimbabwe - 19 degrees south latitude, where it's autumn now - shares this month's excellent Southern Hemisphere view of Mercury, as the old moon swept past.
Venus and Jupiter are the sky's 2 brightest planets, and they hang on either side of your sky now - Jupiter in the east and Venus in the west - shortly after the sun goes down.
Following several days of cloud, rain and uncertainty, the skies suddenly cleared to reveal the sun and moon setting on what was expected to be the end of an era in Zimbabwe.
"What was interesting ... was the development of a small upside-down cumulus on the underside of the cloud head from which delicate curtains of virga could be seen descending."
The storm made landfall near Mozambique in southeast Africa this week, causing at least 7 deaths. Hundreds of miles away, Peter Lowenstein captured strange and shifting skies.
Dr. Peter Lowenstein has contributed many beautiful and fascinating images and stories to EarthSky. Trained as a geochemist, he spent his early years with the Geological Survey of Papua New Guinea, specializing in metals and volcanoes. In 1989, he moved to the Zimbabwe Geological Survey as Chief Economic Geologist and has lived and worked in Zimbabwe ever since. Peter is now retired to Zimbabwe, in a house with a beautiful view in Murambi East, Mutare, where he pursues favorite hobbies including construction of electronic gadgets, listening to music, gardening, surfing the Internet ... and photography.