June brings us all the naked-eye planets at some points in the month, Venus’s introduction to the morning with the Moon, and mornings with four naked-eye planets visible.
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.
EVENTS...
Full Moon – 5th (Visible all night)
Last Quarter Moon – 13th (Visible from midnight into the morning)
New Moon – 21st (darkest skies)
First Quarter Moon – 28th (Visible until midnight)
7th – 8th – Close Encounter – Moon, Jupiter, Saturn– Get out after midnight these two nights at the find the Moon. On the night of the 7th, the Moon will be to the right of bright Jupiter, and to the left of Jupiter will be slightly less bright Saturn. On the next night, the 8th, the Moon will move to be about 5˚ below Saturn and Jupiter, which are in essentially the same spot in the sky.
12th – 13th – Close Encounter – Moon, Mars – Get out there after 2am these mornings, but well before sunrise (5:34am) and find the Moon with red, ruddy Mars nearby. The Moon will be about 10˚ or one fist-width to the right of Mars on the 12th, and 4˚ below Mars on the 13th.
19th – Very Close Encounter – Moon, Venus – Venus starts its rest-of-the-year showcase as a morning star with a great apparition by rising with the Moon this morning. Make sure you have a nice view of the ENE horizon by 4:20am when they rise less than 1˚ apart from each other. Sunrise is 5:35am, so you’ll probably only have about half an hour to get pictures.
20th – Summer Solstice – This is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. There’s a bit of explanation as to why here.
21st – (Africa & Asia) Annular Eclipse of the Sun – Not visible in any way in North America, but pay attention to social media for some awesome photography from people with excellent equipment, lots of planning time, and skills with post-processing. They’ll be photographing the Moon passing in front of the Sun, but the Moon is in the further-from-Earth part of its orbit, so it doesn’t totally obscure the Sun’s surface, so you get ring effect.
Naked-eye PLANETS...
Sunset – Mercury
Throughout the night – Saturn, Jupiter
Morning - Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter
CONSTELLATIONS...
Use a sky map from www.skymaps.com to help you out.
After Dinner, Before Bed:
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 30˚ 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
Before Work:
Summer Triangle – 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.
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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