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People around the world watched this week as the waning crescent moon swept near the very bright planet Venus, and fainter star Aldebaran, in the east before dawn.

A mosaic of people on Earth waving at Saturn on July 19, 2013, the day Earth smiled. NASA called it “a global moment of cosmic self-awareness.”

Photo by Mike Taylor, who is based in Maine. He calls this photo Innuendo.

You can’t miss the star right next to brilliant planet Venus, in the east before dawn now. It’s Aldebaran, the Eye of the Bull in the constellation Taurus.

Neeti Kamthekar captured this photo of the lone sunspot that’s been making its way across the sun in recent days. In reality, the sun’s own spin is causing its apparent movement.

Favorite photos of the July 2017 full moon from EarthSky friends around the world. Thanks to all who submitted to EarthSky or posted to EarthSky Facebook!

Jüri Voit captured this image on July 6 in Kuusalu, Estonia. It looks like a special kind of rainbow, called a red rainbow.

A July 4 day at the beach, with a circumzenithal arc overhead.

Low-lying constellation Scorpius the Scorpion rising behind some of the flora in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, California.

The Milky Way over the Alabama Hills, in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains of California.

Camping under the Southern Cross in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, Indonesia.

The bright red star Antares is located in the direction toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. It’s a rich region of the sky for telescopic observers.

The El Capitan rock formation reflected in a flooded valley in California’s Yosemite National Park.