July 18
First Star Ever Photographed
Sun Position
The Sun is in Cancer at about +20.6° declination. Northern Hemisphere summer; Southern Hemisphere winter. Vega is nearly overhead at midnight for mid-northern observers.
Sky Highlight
No named meteor shower peaks on July 18, but the Southern Delta Aquariids are building toward their late-July peak. For Northern Hemisphere observers, the Milky Way now stretches across the sky after midnight, with Lyra and Vega sitting nearly at the zenith from mid-latitudes.
Deep Sky Object
M57 (NGC 6720), the Ring Nebula in Lyra, roughly 2,300 light-years away. A small but distinct annular shell, it shows clear ring structure in a 4-inch telescope and represents the expelled outer envelope of a dying Sun-like star. Its central white dwarf is faintly visible in larger amateur instruments. Well-placed overhead in Northern Hemisphere July evenings; visible but low from southern mid-latitudes.
Featured Star
Vega (α Lyr) is 25.04 light-years away in Lyra, a bright A0Va main-sequence star. On the night of July 16–17, 1850, it became the first star other than the Sun to be photographed, in a daguerreotype exposure by W.C. Bond and J.A. Whipple at Harvard College Observatory, a quiet milestone that opened stellar astrophysics to the photographic era.
Around This Date
- July 16–17, 1850Vega was photographed by W.C. Bond and J.A. Whipple at Harvard College Observatory using a daguerreotype, the first successful photograph of any star other than the Sun.
- July 18, 1965NASA's Mariner 4 transmitted the last of its 21 photographs of Mars, completing the first close-up photographic survey of another planet, images that revealed a barren, heavily cratered surface.
Vega was the first star to sit still for a photograph, a 25-light-year subject that held its position for the exposure.