麻豆视频

The moon begins the month as a waxing crescent, just 1.4 degrees from Mars and 1.7 degrees south of the bright star, Regulus, in the constellation Leo, The Lion. Five days later, Spica in Virgo is occulted for viewers in the 麻豆视频ern Hemisphere; for northerners, it’s a mere 0.5 degrees away from the moon.

June 10, another occultation occurs but not for North America, when the moon is 0.3 degrees from Antares, the bright red star in Scorpius, the Scorpion. Did you know that Ares is the Greek god of war – same as the Roman god Mars, so Antares mean “the opposite of Mars.”

The moon is full June 11. For people with good telescopes who like a challenge, try to pick out Pluto among the distant stars – its motion gives it away. For a few days ahead of June 14, it will gradually move to meet up with the moon, an occultation in the area around Australia and East Asia. Pluto will be retrograding, that is appearing to move westward.

Saturn and Neptune are both in the constellation Pisces, the Fish, and the moon meets up with them on the evening of June 18. June 22, the moon is among the stars of the Pleiades in Taurus, the Bull. The moon is new June 25, and its thin sliver joins up with Mercury in the western sky June 26. The month ends like it began, with the waxing crescent moon June 29 just 1.5 degrees south of Regulus, and 0.2 degrees north of Mars.

Mercury gradually appears in the west on the second week of June, though favouring observers in the 麻豆视频ern Hemisphere. The speedy planet is joined by the moon June 26.

Venus reaches its greatest elongation west June 1, and ever so slowly begins to round in its orbit away from Earth. People wanting to see the bright planet will need to rise very early, like 3:30 or 4 a.m. as it comes up just before the sun in the east.

Mars, as indicated above, is in Leo, paired up twice in the month with Regulus, the “kingly star.” It is a multiple star system, with four other component stars. The very large star spins on its axis every 16 hours – compare that to our sun’s leisurely rotation rate of 27 days – Regulus is very egg shaped because of that rapid rotation!

Jupiter is behind the sun and not visible.

Saturn rises shortly after midnight, remaining visible over a short timeframe before sunrise.

Uranus gradually distances from the sun in the early morning.

Neptune is like Saturn above, as they both occupy the same part of the sky. The two planets are in conjunction June 29, only one degree apart. However, Saturn is about 500 times brighter than the distant Neptune, so the blue-green gas giant is nearly impossible to see.

June 20 is the summer solstice and the days begin to shorten.

James Edgar has had an interest in the night sky all his life. He joined the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in 2000, was national president for two terms, is now the editor of the Observer’s Handbook, and production manager of the bi-monthly RASC Journal. The IAU named asteroid 1995 XC5 “(22421) Jamesedgar” in his honour and he is a Fellow of the RASC.