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Venus shines bright at sunset all month, with Mars nearby, while Saturn, Jupiter, and even Mercury shine in the mornings, and the Beehive Cluster gets two wandering guests, all in the solstice month of June.
Welcome to Observing With Webb, where a high school astronomy teacher tells you what you’re looking at, why it’s so cool, and what you should check out later this month…at night.
Naked-eye PLANETS
Sunset
Throughout the night - None
Morning – (from left to right) Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn
EVENTS
Full Moon – 3rd (Visible all night)
Waning Gibbous (Mostly lit, rises later at night)
Last Quarter Moon – 10th (Visible midnight into the morning)
Morning Crescents (look East in the AM)
New Moon – 17th (darkest skies)
Evening Crescents (look West after Sunset)
First Quarter Moon – 26th (Visible until midnight)
Evening Gibbous (Mostly lit, after Sunset)
2nd – Mars, Beehive Cluster (M44) – Find that dull red dot in the sky which is Mars, then take some binoculars out, or a telescope, and witness Mars being directly in M44, the Beehive Cluster, so named because of its resemblance to a swarm of bees. The day before and after, Mars will be on either side of the cluster. Definitely worth at least a look, if not a picture.
9th + 10th – CLOSE ENCOUNTER - Moon, Saturn – Get up early, look SE, and find a gibbous Moon with Saturn about 8˚ above and to the left on the morning on the 9th. On the 10th, the Moon will have moved to be 7˚ down and to the left of Saturn.
13th – Venus, Beehive Cluster (M44) – Find that bright brilliant dot in the sky which is Venus, then take some binoculars out, or a telescope, and witness Venus being ALMOST directly in M44, the Beehive Cluster. The day before and after, Venus will be on either side of the cluster. Definitely worth at least a look, if not a picture.
14th – CLOSE ENCOUNTER - Moon, Jupiter – Get up early, after 3am, look E, and find a very thin crescent Moon with bright Jupiter only 2˚ to right.
21st – Summer Solstice – This is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. There’s a bit of explanation as to why here.
20th – 22nd – CLOSE ENCOUNTER – Moon, Venus, Mars – Check this out right after sunset! Look West and you’ll easily see Venus being super bright. Each day, Mars will be about 5˚ (or three finger-widths) up and to the left of Venus. The best part is the Moon traveling through. On the 20th, a super-duper thin Moon will be about 13˚ down and to the right of Venus. But on the 21st, the Moon moves to be just 3˚ to the right of Venus, and is a little bigger and easier to spot. Then, on the 22nd, the Moon moves up and to the left again, forming a nice curved line with Mars and Venus. Definitely worth a look, though pictures will prove to be difficult, given the relative brightness of each object.
CONSTELLATIONS...
Use a sky map from www.skymaps.com to help you out.
After Dinner, Before Bed:
Spring Constellations: Big Dipper, Bootes, Virgo, Corona Borealis, Hercules – Gaze almost vertically as you face the NW, and you’ll easily find the Big Dipper: seven very bright stars that form a spoon shape. Now if you take the handle of the Dipper, follow its curve to the next bright star you see, about 20˚ away, which is Arcturus. “Follow the arc to Arcturus.” That’s the brightest star in Bootes, which looks like a kite. Take that same curve, and follow it about another 20˚ to “speed on to Spica”, the brightest star in Virgo, one of my favorite constellations, since it reminds me of the Dickinson Mermaid. Now go back to Bootes, and just to the left of Bootes are seven stars that form the northern crown Corona Borealis, which looks more like a small bowl or a “C” in the sky. Continue a little further to the left and you’ll find the keystone asterism which is part of the constellation Hercules. Extra Challenge! Look for M13, the Hercules Cluster in between two of Hercules’ “keystone” stars. It known as the best globular cluster in the northern skies. It will be a fuzzy spot in binoculars and will be even cooler through a telescope
Summer Constellations: Lyra, Cygnus, Aquila – Look pretty much straight above you, and find the brightest star up there. You’ll notice a parallelogram attached to it. This is the brightest star Vega, part of the constellation Lyra, the harp. Directly above you will be Cygnus the Swan, with its brightest star Deneb. It will look like a large cross, or if you look out a little further, a swan flying above you. Below Cygnus and Lyra is the third constellation of the Summer Triangle, Aquila the Eagle, with its brightest star Altair. The three bright stars in this one can be easily confused for Orion’s belt, given their similar size, however they are not in line as straight, and are part of a bigger diamond shape. Use a star chart to find small Delphinus and Sagitta in the area as well.
Before Work:
Pegasus, Andromeda – Look directly south and most of the way up the sky and you’ll find the very big and almost perfect square of Pegasus, the winged horse. Now if you look to the top left of the square, you’ll see three pairs of stars creating a neat double curve to the left and up from that corner star. That is Andromeda. If you have a little extra time, find the middle pair of stars, connect them with a line, and move toward the inside of the curve about the same distance as those stars are apart. There you’ll find the Andromeda Galaxy, which will be just a small faint fuzzy with your naked eye. The cool part is that you are looking at billions of stars that are 2.9 million light years away, that spread out about 150,000 light years across.
Don’t forget this podcast is found on my Podbean page, Stitcher, and iTunes. There’s also a video version on my YouTube Channel and I can be found on Twitter and Instagram as @mrwebbpv. The Pequea Valley Planetarium and its events and updates are on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as @pvplanetarium.
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