Backyard Stargazer for June 2018
By Francis Parnell
It’s June, and Saturn takes center stage!
One hour before sunrise on the 1st, look southwest and above the Teapot of SAGITTARIUS to spot Saturn, 3-degrees lower right of the waning gibbous Moon.
On the 3rd, one hour before sunrise, look east-southeast to see the Moon about 3-degrees above bright red Mars.
After sunset on the 5th through the 10th, find Venus in the west with the brightest stars of GEMINI. Pollux is 5-degrees right or upper right of Venus, Castor 4-degrees to the right of Pollux. The brighter star, Pollux, is 10 times the solar diameter, 33 times the luminosity, and 34 light-years away. Castor, 51 light-years away and twice the Sun’s diameter, is a 6 star binary system. Castor A+B, both double stars, orbit each other; they’re both orbited by Castor C, two Red Dwarfs. Luminosity is 48 times that of the Sun.
Mercury emerges from the glare of the Sun on the 19th and can be found in binoculars far to the lower right of Venus in twilight. By month’s end, Mercury sets 1.5 hours after the Sun and viewing it will be much easier.
The Earth reaches the Solstice at 6:07 a.m. on the 21st marking the first day of summer.
After sunset on the 23rd, the waxing gibbous Moon with Jupiter lower right, are 4.5-dgrees apart as they travel westward.
Rising at dusk and visible all night, everyone’s favorite, the ringed planet Saturn, is at opposition on the night of the 27th at 841,250,053 miles (75 light-minutes) away. The almost full Moon is less than 2-degrees north of Saturn at midnight.
The stars belong to everyone, so let’s “Keep looking up!”
Francis Parnell of Darlington has been an amateur astronomer for over 46 years, and was on the staff and helped out at the Francis Marion University Observatory from 1982 until 2006 by showing visitors “what’s out there.” With the help of a friend, Mr. Ernest Lowry, he built his own telescope in 1986. And, because of light pollution, for the last 31 years he has been advocating for the advantages of using fully-shielded lighting at night.