Forecast for June 2014

 

Moon                         

                                                    

First Quarter                5^th – 12:32 – 01:04

Full                             13^th – 21:36 – 05:12
Last Quarter              19^th – 00:37 – 12:51
New                            27^th – 05:14 – 21:14

 

June already, but by the end of it the skies will start to darken and the nights lengthen. Lots of summer objects to look for before that, particularly in the south, as the middle of the galaxy rises just above the horizon. Getting past Galaxy season too, into Summer with the Summer Triangle high in the east as twilight descends. The Milky Way through , Perseus, Cassiopeia, Cygnus, Lacerta, Vulpecula, Sagitta, Aquila down to Scutum and Serpens, full of things to seek, visually and photographically.

 

Planets.

Mercury can be seen in the evening up to 90mins after the Sun has set on the 1^st. It will have a 21% phase and be at mag 1.4 presenting a 10 arcsec disc. By the 11^th it will be too close to the Sun to follow, so avoid it after that for the rest of the month.

On the 1^st Venus will rise 90 mins before the Sun, a very bright, mag -4.0/14 arcsec disc displaying a 77% phase, and will continue to hold its general location relative to the Sun all month, though the phase will stiffen to 85% and it will shrink in apparent size to 12  arcsec and mag -3.9. On the 24^th it will have a thin crescent Moon beside it as it rises in the morning twilight.

Mars will be on high on the 1^st, due south at 9:00pm, past it’s best but high enough in the sky to still make observing worthwhile. It will be at mag -0.5 with a 12 arcsec disc, and will set at 2:00am. On the 7^th, it will be accompanied across the sky by a fat Moon. By mid-month it will have reduced to mag -0.2 and 11 arcsec, setting at 1:00am, and by the end of the month it wil be at mag 0 and9 arcsec, seting at 12:15am. Getting close to the end of its time with us.

Jupiter starts the month at 9:00pm almost due west, with a fat crescent Moon 8° away. It will be at mag -1.9 and 33 arcsec. It will follow Mercury down to the horizon and set at 11:30pm. Mid-month it will be there for us in the west, at mag -1.9 and 32 arcsec and will set at 10:45pm. At 9:00pm on the 30^th it will be just 7° above the WNW horizon, definitely past its best, but still worth the while as it will be mag -1.8 and 32 arcsec, though deep in the murky sky close to the horizon.

At 9:00pm Saturn will be 10° above the south eastern horizon, at mag 0.2 and 18 arcsec. The rings will be well open and it will be a beautiful sight, as it rises into the sky. By 11:30pm it will be due south but only 17° up. It will set at 3:15am as dawn begins to show itself. On the 10^th it will have the almost full Moon within 2° of it as it passes across the sky. By the 15^th it will have hardly changed but will set at 2:30am. By the 30^th, it will still remain virtually unchanged visually, and will set at 1:30am.

Uranus will rise on the 1st at 3:30am in lightening twilight, after Neptune and followed by Venus. It will be at mag 7.9 and show a 3 arcsec disc, not easy to find, but by 3:40am it will be exactly due east, 3° above the horizon. On the 15^th, its tiny blue disc will remain unchanged visually, and at 2:50am it will be due east. At month’s end it will be 4° above the horizon due east at 1:50am. Uranus will set in broad daylight all month.

On the 1^st, Neptune’s little 2 arcsec mag 7.9 disc will rise at 2:30am due ESE, less than a degree above the horizon. It will be due south east at 4:10am and 14° high. Not easy to find, but hopefully these notes will help. Mid-month it will rise at 1:30am, and will be due ESE within 5 mins, less than 2° up. An even smaller disc than Uranus, also blue but you might have difficulty in noting that so low in the sky. On the 30^th, it will rise at 12:30am, due ESE, just above the horizon, unchanged visually. It will fade into the morning and set in daylight all month so will be lost till the next morning.

 

Meteor Showers.

There are 8 showers peaking this month, and all of them are very minor except the Arietids and the Zete Perseids, both of which are daytime showers, peppering our skies while the Sun is up, so we won’t be able to see them, unless we use radio to hear the return of a signal from the train of the meteor.

 

Comets. On the 1^st, C/2012 K1 PANSTARRS is at mag 12.5, near the bottom of Ursa Major. By mid-month it will be in the middle of Leo Minor, at mag 12.3, and at the end of the month it will be just above the head of Leo, at mag 12.0, or so the pundits tell us, but they’re inclined to exaggerate. It should be visible with a camera, and just possible with a telescope but unlikely with binoculars

Similarly C/2012 X1 (LINEAR) is in the mag 12 region, but lower in the sky, at the bottom end of Aquarius, and moving southwards into Piscis Austrinus, all but out of reach.
C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) fades from 15.2 in Ophiuchus on the 1^st, to 16.3 in Libra on the 30^th, Photographic only unless you have a pretty big telescope. When judging magnitudes of comets we must remember that they are diffuse objects and not single points of light, so the light, given the same magnitude reading, bundled into a tiny spot of a star, is spread out for a comet, so the light/square unit is much less.

 Happy hunting.