Events of interest for June ….
June – Many thanks again for all your contributions to the group. Don’t ever forget, there is no such thing as a daft question in here. Don’t forget to visit out sister group “AUK – Aurora UK” for reports on aurora activity – we are virtually at the end of aurora season but noctilucent cloud season has just begun.
There are a few changes in this months “What’s Up” and I am trying to research as much upcoming activity as possible. There will be more postings on upcoming Deep Sky Objects (DSO’s) which are best placed for viewing. This is in part due to my own observatory now being functional and remoted and this also provides me some steerage on upcoming events.
June 01 – MARS – The planet Mars will pass through the beehive cluster (M44), an open cluster of stars located in the constellation Cancer. Mars can be seen in or very near the cluster on the nights of June 1st and 2nd. A good pair of binoculars should be enough to see this rare event all though a telescope will provide a much better view.
June 02 – STAR CLUSTER – The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (M13, NGC 6205; mag 5.8) will be well placed in the evening sky in coming weeks. On 2 June it will reach its highest point in the sky at around midnight local time, and on subsequent evenings it will culminate four minutes earlier each day. From Scarborough, it is visible all night. It will become visible around 00:18 (BST), 70° above your south-eastern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will be lost to dawn twilight around 01:42, 70° above your south-western horizon. At a declination of 36°27’N, it is easiest to see from the northern hemisphere but cannot be seen from latitudes much south of 33°S. At magnitude 5.8, M13 is quite faint, and certainly not visible to the naked eye, but can be viewed through a pair of binoculars or small telescope.
June 03 – STAR CLUSTER – The globular cluster M12 (NGC 6218; mag 6.7) in Ophiuchus will be well placed in the evening sky in coming weeks. On 3 June it will reach its highest point in the sky at around midnight local time, and on subsequent evenings it will culminate four minutes earlier each day. From Scarborough , it is visible all night. It will become visible around 00:24 (BST), 33° above your southern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 01:04, 33° above your southern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight around 01:37, 33° above your southern horizon. At a declination of 1°56’S, it is visible across much of the world; it can be seen at latitudes between 68°N and 71°S. At magnitude 6.1, M12 is quite faint, and certainly not visible to the naked eye, but can be viewed through a pair of binoculars or small telescope.
June 04 – FULL MOON – The Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be will be fully illuminated. This phase occurs at 03:43 UTC. This full moon was known by early Native American tribes as the Strawberry Moon because it signaled the time of year to gather ripening fruit. It also coincides with the peak of the strawberry harvesting season. This moon has also been known as the Rose Moon and the Honey Moon.
June 04 – VENUS – The planet Venus reaches greatest eastern elongation of 45.4 degrees from the Sun. This is the best time to view Venus since it will be at its highest point above the horizon in the evening sky. Look for the bright planet in the western sky after sunset.
June 06 – STAR CLUSTER – The globular cluster M10 (NGC 6254; mag 6.6) in Ophiuchus will be well placed in the evening sky in coming weeks. On 6 June it will reach its highest point in the sky at around midnight local time, and on subsequent evenings it will culminate four minutes earlier each day. From Scarborough , it is visible all night. It will become visible around 00:47 (BST), 31° above your southern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 01:02, 31° above your southern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight around 01:19, 31° above your southern horizon. At a declination of 4°05’S, it is visible across much of the world; it can be seen at latitudes between 65°N and 74°S. At magnitude 6.6, M10 is quite faint, and certainly not visible to the naked eye, but can be viewed through a pair of binoculars or small telescope.
June 09 – MOON/SATURN – The Moon and Saturn will share the same right ascension, with the Moon passing 2°58′ to the south of Saturn. The Moon will be 21 days old. At around the same time, the two objects will also make a close approach, technically called an appulse. From Scarborough however, the pair will be visible from soon after it rises, at 01:24, until soon before it sets at 11:33. The Moon will be at mag -12.2, and Saturn at mag 0.7, both in the constellation Aquarius. The pair will be too widely separated to fit within the field of view of a telescope, but will be visible to the naked eye or through a pair of binoculars.
June 10 – MOON – The Moon is at last quarter and will be visible in the dawn sky. From Scarborough, it will be visible from soon after it rises, at 01:52, until soon before it sets at 12:36. At this time in its monthly cycle of phases, it appears almost exactly half illuminated. The Moon orbits the Earth once every four weeks, causing its phases to cycle through new moon, first quarter, full moon, last quarter, and back to new moon once every 29.5 days. As it progresses through this cycle, it is visible at different times of day. At last quarter, it rises in the middle of the night and appears high in the sky by dawn. It sets at around lunchtime.
June 11 – METEORS – The Daytime Arietid meteor shower will be active from 14 April to 24 June, producing its peak rate of meteors around 11 June. Over this period, there will be a chance of seeing Daytime Arietid meteors whenever the shower’s radiant point – in the constellation Aries – is above the horizon, with the number of visible meteors increasing the higher the radiant point is in the sky. Seen from Scarborough , the shower will not be visible before around 02:01 each night, when its radiant point rises above your eastern horizon. It will then remain active until dawn breaks around 03:31. The radiant point culminates (is highest in the sky) after dawn – at around 11:00 BST – and so the shower is likely produce its best displays shortly before dawn, when its radiant point is highest. At this time, the Earth’s rotation turns Scarborough to face optimally towards the direction of the incoming meteors, maximising the number that rain vertically downwards, producing short trails close to the radiant point. At other times, there will be fewer meteors burning up over Scarborough, but those that do will tend to enter the atmosphere at an oblique angle, producing long-lived meteors that may traverse a wide area of the sky before completely burning up. The shower is expected to reach peak activity at around 03:00 BST on 11 June 2023, and so the best displays might be seen before dawn on 11 June and after the radiant rises on 11 June. At its peak, the shower is expected to produce a nominal rate of around 50 meteors per hour. The radiant of the Daytime Arietid meteor shower is at around right ascension 02h50m, declination 24°N.
June 12 – VENUS – The planet Venus will pass through the beehive cluster, an open cluster of stars located in the constellation Cancer. Venus can be seen in or very near the cluster on the nights of June 12 and 13. A good pair of binoculars should be enough to see this rare event all though a telescope will provide a much better view.
June 14 – MOON/JUPITER – At 06:33 GMT, Jupiter (magnitude -2.2) will meet the 26-day-old Moon in the constellation Aries. The apparent distance between the two objects will be 1°30′. It’s too far to spot them at once via telescope, but you’ll see the conjunction with the naked eye or binoculars.
June 14 – VENUS/STAR CLUSTER – Venus and M44 will make a close approach, passing within a mere 47.9 arcminutes of each other. From Scarborough, the pair will become visible around 22:08 (BST), 16° above your western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. They will then sink towards the horizon, setting 2 hours and 39 minutes after the Sun at 00:15. Venus will be at mag -4.4; and M44 will be at mag 3.1. Both objects will lie in the constellation Cancer. They will be a little too widely separated to fit comfortably within the field of view of a telescope, but will be visible through a pair of binoculars.
June 16: MOON/MERCURY – At 20:40 GMT, Mercury (magnitude -0.8) will meet the 28-day-old Moon in the constellation Taurus. The apparent distance between the two objects will be 4°18′. It’s too far to spot them at once via telescope, but you’ll see the conjunction with the naked eye or binoculars.
June 17 – SATURN – Saturn will enter retrograde motion, halting its usual eastward movement through the constellations, and turning to move westwards instead. This reversal of direction is a phenomenon that all the solar system’s outer planets periodically undergo, a few months before they reach opposition. The retrograde motion is caused by the Earth’s own motion around the Sun. As the Earth circles the Sun, our perspective changes, and this causes the apparent positions of objects to move from side-to-side in the sky with a one-year period. This nodding motion is super-imposed on the planet’s long-term eastward motion through the constellations.
June 18 – NEW MOON – The Moon will located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky. This phase occurs at 04:39 UTC. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere.
June 21 – SOLSTICE – The June solstice occurs at 14:51 UTC. The North Pole of the earth will be tilted toward the Sun, which will have reached its northernmost position in the sky and will be directly over the Tropic of Cancer at 23.44 degrees north latitude. This is the first day of summer (summer solstice) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of winter (winter solstice) in the Southern Hemisphere.
June 22 – MOON/VENUS – At 00:47 GMT, Venus (magnitude -4.4) will meet the 4-day-old Moon in the constellation Cancer. The apparent distance between the two objects will be 3°41′. It’s too far to spot them at once via telescope, but you’ll see the conjunction with the naked eye or binoculars.
June 26 – MOON – The Moon is at first quarter and will be visible from soon after it rises, at 12:55, until soon before it sets at 01:08. At this time in its monthly cycle of phases, it appears almost exactly half illuminated. The Moon orbits the Earth once every four weeks, causing its phases to cycle through new moon, first quarter, full moon, last quarter, and back to new moon once every 29.5 days. As it progresses through this cycle, it is visible at different times of day. At first quarter, it appears high in the sky at sunset before sinking towards the horizon and setting in the middle of the night.
June 27 – METEORS – The June Bootid meteor shower will be active from 22 June to 2 July, producing its peak rate of meteors around 27 June. Over this period, there will be a chance of seeing June Bootid meteors whenever the shower’s radiant point – in the constellation Bootes – is above the horizon, with the number of visible meteors increasing the higher the radiant point is in the sky. From Scarborough the radiant point is circumpolar, which means it is always above the horizon and the shower will be active throughout the night. The radiant point culminates (is highest in the sky) before nightfall – at around 22:00 BST – and so the shower is likely produce its best displays soon after dusk, when the radiant point is still as high as possible. At this time, the Earth’s rotation turns Scarborough to face optimally towards the direction of the incoming meteors, maximising the number that rain vertically downwards, producing short trails close to the radiant point. At other times, there will be fewer meteors burning up over Scarborough, and they will tend to enter the atmosphere at an oblique angle, producing long-lived meteors that may traverse a wide area of the sky before completely burning up. The shower is expected to reach peak activity at around 00:00 BST on 28 June 2023. The Moon, in Virgo, will be around first quarter phase at the shower’s peak, but will set at 01:20 and pose no interference later in the night. The parent body responsible for creating the June Bootid shower has been identified as comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke. The radiant of the June Bootid meteor shower is at around right ascension 14h50m, declination 48°N
June 30 – NEPTUNE – Neptune will enter retrograde motion, halting its usual eastward movement through the constellations, and turning to move westwards instead. This reversal of direction is a phenomenon that all the solar system’s outer planets periodically undergo, a few months before they reach opposition. This motion was known to ancient observers, and it troubled them as they could not reconcile it with models in which the planets moved in uniform circular orbits around the Earth, as they believed. The retrograde motion is caused by the Earth’s own motion around the Sun. As the Earth circles the Sun, our perspective changes, and this causes the apparent positions of objects to move from side-to-side in the sky with a one-year period. This nodding motion is super-imposed on the planet’s long-term eastward motion through the constellations.
Observations and imaging now being conducted at the Muston Observatory (MOBS) near Filey, North Yorks
Muston Observatory – https://www.facebook.com/groups/mustonobs
Don’t forget our sister group with near real time aurora alerts ….
AUK – Aurora UK – https://www.facebook.com/groups/AuroraUK/
Note: Times are marked BST those without BST are UTC (ie an hour less)
Thanks to: in-the-sky.org and various online astronomy calendars + own input
