Skywatch: July is the month of Mars

Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game will be played in Washington on July 17, and the cosmos presents a formidable planetary lineup to celebrate.

Rocking a red uniform, Mars rises now in the southeastern heavens around 10:30 p.m., crosses south near 3:15 a.m. and sets the following morning after sunrise.

But by the end of the month, the planet will ascend the southeastern sky around 8:45 p.m. and cross south around 1:20 a.m.