By Jon Spargo
Tech Astronomy Club
June will be a busy month for sky watchers. A couple of events will require binoculars or a small telescope but will be worth the effort. The first is the appearance of Comet McNaught. This object became visible during the early morning hours beginning around June 1 as it makes its way through the constellations of Andromeda, Perseus and Auriga.
The best viewing will be mid month as it passes through Perseus.
If it follows predicted magnitudes it should begin the month at magnitude 8 and brighten one or two magnitudes by the middle of the month. Its path will begin low in the east and move toward the northeast. A detailed finder chart can be found in the June issue of Sky & Telescope Magazine. An on-line search might also lead you to a finder chart.
Venus will continue to dazzle us in the early evening hours. On the evening of June 11 about an hour after sunset, Venus and the bright stars Pollux and Castor, in Gemini, will form a virtual straight line. Another great sight, for those who have binoculars, will be on the evenings of June 19-20. At that time Venus will be less than one degree from M44, the famous Beehive star cluster.
Mars will spend most of the month hanging out in Leo, “The Lion.” On June 5- 6 Mars was found less than one degree from the bright star Regulus which is the last star or at the base of the handle of the “Sickle of Leo.” Some folks refer to this grouping as looking like a backwards question mark.
Saturn appears slightly dimmer this month as the Earth is steadily pulling away from the ringed planet. As the month progresses the rings will begin to open up a bit which is another artifact of the Earth’s changing position with relation to Saturn. During May the rings closed to 1.7 degrees and appeared nearly edge on. We won’t see the rings this thin again until 2024.
Jupiter will be an early morning target for planet watchers. A bonus this month is a conjunction with the planet Uranus. Through June 16 the two planets will be within one degree of each other.
The Moon will be new on June 12, 1st quarter on June 19, and full on June 26.
On June 14, looking west-northwest about an hour after sunset, the crescent Moon will be just below and to the left of Venus.
There will also be a partial eclipse of the Moon in the early morning hours of the night of June 25-26. Unfortunately, this eclipse will only be partially visible to folks in the western half of the U.S. Those in Hawaii should have a grand view of the entire event. The partial eclipse will begin at 4:17 a.m. MDT and 3:17 PDT.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment