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Take The Virgo Challenge

By Lewis McCool

NOTABLE SPACE HIGHLIGHTS

May 21, 1961 - President John F. Kennedy delivers his speech that launches the nation on a race to the moon with the Soviet Union.
May 28, 1930 - birth of Frank Drake. A radio astronomer, Drake is best known for the “Drake Equation,” which focuses on the factors related to how many intelligent, communicating civilizations might exist in the Milky Way galaxy.
May 28, 1959 - Rhesus monkeys Able and Baker make a successful suborbital flight to become the first primates in space.
June 3, 1965 - Launch of U.S. two-man Gemini 4 spacecraft. Astronaut Ed White became the nation's first spacewalker during the mission.
June 8, 1625 - Birth of Giovanni Cassini. The Italian astronomer was first to measure the distance from Earth to Mars, thereby determining the solar system's scale. He is most famous for discovering the division between the prominent rings of Saturn.
June 13, 1983 - Pioneer 10 becomes the first manmade object to leave the solar system.
June 16, 1963 - Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman to orbit the Earth and the only woman to fly a solo mission into space.
June 18, 1983 - Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in orbit.

MOON PHASES

(Mountain Daylight Time)
• New: May 8, 4:45 a.m.; June 6, 5:55 p.m.
• First Quarter: May 16, 4:56 a.m.; June 14, 9:22 p.m.
• Full: May 23, 4:18 p.m. (Flower Moon, Planting Moon or, as the Lakota people traditionally refer to it, the When Ponies Shed Moon.)
• Last Quarter: May 30, 7:47 a.m.

There's something about Canopus. It's the second brightest star in the sky (after Sirius). It's situated in the southern constellation Carina, "the keel" of the legendary ship Argo, and it's never visible in these parts.

Our neighbors not far to the south can see the minus 0.6 magnitude yellow super giant, though not this time of year. You need to be near or south of the 30th parallel (30 degrees north latitude) to get a good look at Canopus. It's low on the southern horizon in late winter and early spring. Residents of Tucson and Las Cruces have a shot at it.

Canopus is 310 light years from Earth. It is 65 times the diameter of our sun and 15,000 times as luminous. Impressive statistics!

This February, I spotted it while camped along the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park, Texas. (I'm not a snowbird; I've just been on an extended Canopus quest.) Big Bend rivals the Four Corners for stargazing opportunities - talk about a dark sky!

In March, Canopus was a fixture for me in the early evening while camped in a state park near Tampa, Fla. As you might imagine, the sky is never dark there. But Canopus is one of the few stars that shine through urban light pollution.

Having been spoiled by the consistently magnificent skies of the Southwest, I was reminded that familiar constellations can be easier to spot when the dimmer stars are washed out.

By the time you read this, I will have returned to the land of the glorious San Juans and glorious night skies. With so many nearby stars quite visible, there are times when I have to take a minute to pick out such sky fixtures as Corona Borealis, Triangulum or the Great Square in Pegasus.

For those of us outside the urban zones, June is an excellent month to take the Virgo challenge.

There are 13 Messier galaxies within the "Virgo cluster," in the constellations Virgo and adjacent Coma Berenices. Advance planning, a small but good quality telescope, skillful navigation, reasonably dark skies and patience are key to finding them all - in one night (that's the real challenge).

Now I'm no expert at locating these elusive, fuzzy objects, but I plan to take a shot at them one of these comfortable, late spring - and moonless - nights. A good window of opportunity occurs on the nights around June 6 when the moon is new or nearly so.

One Messier expert suggests a 6-inch to 8-inch scope used on a dark night with just a little light pollution is likely to yield the best results. A larger scope and a pristine sky may confuse some galaxy questers, since they will be able to see even fainter objects (there are dozens of them in the mix), making it difficult to pick out the Messier galaxies of interest: M58, M59, M60, M84, M86, M87, M88, M89, M90, M91, M98, M99 and M100.

In advance of your viewing session, study a sky chart that clearly shows the location of the objects. A book with photos of the galaxies will help confirm their identity.

I'm clearly at a disadvantage with my 10-inch Newtonian with a Dobsonian mount. I'll have to pull and push the tube, hoping the finder scope will help get me in the vicinity. Those of you with GPS-aligned, computer-guided scopes only have to key in each target and pick them off, one by one.

These galaxies, each with hundreds of millions of stars, are some 60 million light years away.

Closer to home, Jupiter continues to dominate the evening sky, shining at magnitude minus 2.2, in Virgo, not far from the cluster we're seeking. On the evening of May 19 and the morning of June 16 the moon will pass close to Jupiter.

Saturn, in Gemini, was a fine evening target a few months ago, but it has moved westward in a hurry. Catch it while you can low in the western sky after sunset.

From mid- to late June, a three-planet rendezvous takes place in the west at evening twilight. Saturn will pass through the neighborhood that houses Venus and Mercury. You should be able to spot Saturn (magnitude 0.2) and Venus (minus 3.9) beginning June 9 around 9 p.m. Look for the 3-day-old moon nearby. Mercury (magnitude minus 0.6) will join them a few days later. Watch the trio beginning June 17 through the end of the month. Binoculars will help.

Mars rises earlier, brightens a bit and moves from Aquarius into Pisces as May gives way to June. It's only a hint of a fine show to come in late summer. By June 1, it rises at about 2:30 a.m. and shines at magnitude 0.3. Mars is fairly close to Uranus (magnitude 5.9). On May 15, the two planets will be separated by slightly more than 1 degree.

On May 31, the moon and Mars make a tight pair before sunrise near the horizon in the east-southeast.

On May 24, the moon occults Antares, the 1st magnitude red giant star in Scorpius. The event begins about 1:10 a.m. and ends about 2:30 a.m.