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Darkening Nights Highlight Planets

In History

June 3, 1948 – 200-inch Hale Telescope goes into operation at Palomar Observatory in California. The scope was named for astronomer George Ellery Hale, born June 29, 1868.

June 3, 1965 – Launch of the two-man Gemini 4 spacecraft. Astronaut Ed White became the nation’s first spacewalker during the mission.

June 8, 1625 – Birth date of Giovanni Cassini. The Italian astronomer discovered the division between the prominent rings of Saturn. The gap, visible in a small telescope, is now known as the Cassini Division.

June 10, 2003 – Spirit, the Mars Exploration Rover was launched.

June 16, 1963 – Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to orbit Earth.

June 18, 1983 – Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.

June 24, 1915 – Birth date of British astronomer, mathematician and science fiction writer Fred Hoyle.

June 26, 1730 – Birth date of French comet hunter Charles Messier, noted for his catalog of fuzzy deep-space objects.

June 30, 1908 – An asteroid or large meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere and exploded over the Tunguska area of Siberia. A pine forest of about 500,000 acres was flattened by the event.

MOON PHASES

Last quarter: June 4, 4:13 p.m.

New: June 12, 5:15 a.m.

First quarter: June 18, 10:29 p.m.

Full: June 26, 5:30 a.m. (Strawberry Moon)

Night owls rejoice. The summer solstice arrives June 21 at 5:30 a.m. The nights will be getting longer for the next six months.

One of June's highlights is a partial eclipse of the moon, visible in our area in the predawn twilight of June 26. The partial phase begins at 4:17 a.m. and peaks at 5:38 �?�? the sky will be quite bright �?�? with the eclipse covering a little more than half the moon. The moon sets about 15 minutes later, so we won't see the end of the eclipse.

Mars is much farther away and fainter than it was earlier in the year but still is easy to spot in the constellation Leo. Have a look as evening twilight ends around 10:30.

Mars will be a little less than 3 degrees west of the bright star Regulus on the first of June. The two are about the same magnitude, but Mars shows its distinctive yellow-orange tint. Watch the pair nightly for the first week in the month as Mars moves eastward toward and then past Regulus. The two will be less than a degree apart on the nights of the 5th, 6th and 7th.

The waxing crescent moon will be in the vicinity on the 16th and 17th.

Mars hovers between Venus, low in the west, and Saturn, to the east in Virgo.

Venus is still the "evening star" and is bright enough to be seen before sunset. Look for it a bit more than 30 degrees above the sun early in the month. The separation grows throughout June, reaching 40 degrees by month's end. Gemini's twin stars, Pollux and Castor, will be right of Venus during the first half of the month. They should come into view near the western horizon as the sky darkens around 10 p.m.

The 3-day-old crescent moon will be just below Venus on the 14th.

The Soviet Union launched its Venera 9 probe toward Venus on June 8, 1975. Four months later, it sent back the first photos from the planet's surface.

Saturn is slighter brighter than Mars. Right now its rings are nearly edge-on as seen from Earth.

Giant Jupiter remains the "morning star" this month. In Pisces, it rises around 2:30 a.m. early in the month and shining at a glorious minus 2.3 magnitude. It brightens to minus 2.5 and rises before 1 a.m. by month's end. It points the way to Uranus this month.

Uranus is about four times as far from Earth as Jupiter and about a third the diameter, so it is much fainter, just barely visible with the naked eye, if your eyesight is good and you have a dark-sky site.

Uranus is a degree or less from Jupiter during the first two weeks of June. Binoculars should reveal its tiny greenish disk.

Mercury is too close to the sun to be seen this month.