It’s hard to say
”
so long
”
to such a beauty as Saturn with its brilliant rings and many
moons visible through even a small telescope.
It’s hard to say “so long” to such a beauty as Saturn with its brilliant rings and many moons visible through even a small telescope.
As we will see in June, the Earth’s thick atmosphere scrambles the view of the planet’s rings and makes the moons harder to see. Right now the rings are tilted toward us showing off at their best. But in just six years from now, the rings will have tilted edge-on down to the point where it looks like there are no rings at all.
Starting in August the ringed wonder will be seen in the morning sky, being missed from our view only in July.
But then comes the planet that will be making headlines during the next few months as it cruises toward its closest approach to Earth in more than 59,000 years. And that would be Mars.
During the next five months, we’ll be up close and personal with the Red Planet like never before. At its brightest, Aug. 28, Mars will shine at a magnitude of 2.9, bigger and brighter than ever before. Or at least better than any human has ever seen.
It was actually computed by Aldo Vitagliano, an expert in computational celestial mechanics at the University of Naples, Italy, that the last time Mars came this close to Earth was back in the year 57,617 B.C. when it passed within 34,607,453 miles, a little closer than this year’s 34,646,418 miles. So we are talking some 59,620 years ago.
Mars really starts to show off this month. It nearly doubles in brightness, going from magnitude -0.7 on Sunday to magnitude -1.4 on June 30. And its diameter grows by one-third, from 12.4 inches to 16.5 inches. Each night Mars rises earlier, coming up before midnight by the end of June.
So if you are thinking of buying a new and bigger telescope, now is the time to get to it, before Mars reaches its best in August. I was just notified that my new 14-inch will be here within the week. I’m like a kid, just can’t seem to wait.
Constellation of the Month: Bootes, the herdsman. The rather empty sky of spring and early summer evenings has one very bright star in the middle of it: Arcturus, in the constellation Bootes. It is almost overhead now. You can be sure you are looking at it when you see its slightly yellow or orange color.
Another easy way to find Arcturus is to look at the Big Dipper’s bent handle. Follow the handle’s curve continuing on south, and it will lead you to Arcturus in this month’s constellation Bootes.
There are two dots over the second “o” in Bootes that means you pronounce the vowels separately: oh-OH, not oo. It is a Greek word meaning a man who tends a herd of cows, so I guess you could call this one the Cowboy constellation.
Arcturus is about 40 light years away from us. So if you got in your Chevy pickup and sped up to 186,000 miles per second, it would take you 40 years to get there. And this is one of our closer neighbors in the Universe.
Take into consideration some of the objects that the Hubble Space Telescope is looking at these days, some 400,000 million miles away from our Earth.
Whenever I try to understand these kinds of figures my mind just goes “tilt.” This is just more than I can comprehend.
A couple of weeks ago my wife and I had the opportunity to go on a tour and visit many of the observatories in Arizona. The nights were clear and the telescopes were vary large. I may have to cancel my order for that little 14-inch scope and get something with some size to it.
My wife is not into astronomy at all, but was nice enough to come along with me anyway. Though, I am afraid she might try to get back at me someday and take me on some kind of a quilting tour. I guess that’s only fair.
There should be some great warm summer nights coming up in the next few months. So don’t let them pass you by. You don’t even need a telescope, binoculars should do fine, or just your naked eye should suffice.
The main thing is to get out there and enjoy it. Clear skies.
June Sky Watch
Sunday: Moon passes 4 degrees north of Saturn
Thursday: Moon passes 4 degrees north of Jupiter
June 7: First Quarter Moon
June 12: Moon is closest to Earth (Perigee – 223,958 miles)
June 14: Full Moon
June 17: Moon passes 5 degrees south of Neptune
June 19: Moon passes 1.7 degrees south of Mars;
Moon passes 5 degrees south of Uranus
June 20: Mars passes 3 degrees south of Uranus;
Mercury passes 0.4 degrees south of Venus
June 21: Last Quarter Moon;
Summer solstice is at 12:10 p.m. PST
June 24: Moon is farthest from Earth (Apogee – 251,800 miles)
June 28: Latest sunset of the year
June 29: New Moon
