Backyard Stargazer – The Moon in June … and other sights
By Francis Parnell
The summertime constellations of Libra, Scorpius and Sagittarius are rising after sunset in June. They’ll be lined up in the south at midnight on the 21st. The center of the Milky Way galaxy lies 26,000 light-years away in the direction of Sagittarius.
Francis Parnell, the Backyard Stargazer of Darlington
At dusk on the 5th, find the thin two-day-old crescent Moon in the west along with red Mars and tiny Mercury. The three are in Gemini and form a line 17 degrees long.
Around 10 p.m. on the 8th, spot Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, 4 degrees below the crescent Moon.
Brighter than it’s been in five years, dazzling yellow Jupiter is at opposition, 397,850,853 miles from Earth on the night of the 10th. Opposition means that a planet is directly opposite the Sun at midnight in our night sky. We catch Jupiter every 398.9 days.
Looking southeast at dusk on the 15th, the waxing gibbous Moon, bright yellow Jupiter and fiery red Antares form an equilateral triangle. At dusk on the 16th, the Moon has moved to the lower left of Jupiter and the trio form an arc 14 degrees end to end.
Near midnight on the 18th, one day after full Moon, look south-southeast to see the ringed planet Saturn 2 degrees above the Moon. A telescope at 40 power shows the ring system quite well.
On the 21st at 11:54 a.m., the Sun is at the Solstice, its highest point in our northern sky, and astronomical summer begins.
Looking northwest along the twilight line on the 23rd, the elusive planet Mercury is at Greatest Elongation, 25 degrees east of the Sun. This is the best view of Mercury we’ll get all year.
FAST FACT: It all started with the Big Bang. The universe came into existence from a point smaller than an atom and expanded at twice the speed of light. This extreme expansion, called Inflation, means the galaxies at the limit of what our modern telescopes can “see” are 46.5 billion light-years away; it also means the visible universe is a bubble of space 93 billion light-years in diameter. Does space stop at that distance? No. How large is it? It may be infinite.
Quoting Professor Carl Sagan: “The cosmos is all there is, or ever was, or ever will be.”
Enjoy summer, help reduce light pollution and “Keep looking up!”