THE SKY IN JUNE 



By Joe Rao 



Mercury puts on a fine show for much 

 of June, not setting for as long as an 

 hour and forty-five minutes after sun- 

 down. Look for it low above the west- 

 northwestern horizon as twilight dark- 

 ens. Mercury begins June at magnitude 

 -0.9 but fades considerably thereafter. 

 Although it gains its greatest elongation 

 (twenty-five degrees east of the Sun) on 

 June 20th, it reaches its highest altitude 

 (eighteen degrees above the horizon 

 at sunset) in the week before then, as 

 seen from forty degrees north latitude. 

 Around the 9th, the planet may be easy 

 to confuse with two bright stars, Capel- 

 la, far to its right, and Procyon, far to 

 its left. On the 27th, Mercury appears 

 almost exactly in line with the "twin 

 stars," Castor and Pollux, in the con- 

 stellation Gemini, the twins. A line 

 from Castor through Pollux, extending 

 a bit more than twice the distance be- 

 tween them, brings you to Mercury. 

 Hovering about six degrees above the 

 planet is a young crescent Moon. 



Venus rises in the east with the first light 

 of dawn, flaming at magnitude —3.8, a 

 dazzling but low "morning star" you 

 can pick out of the brightening daylight 

 as sunrise approaches. On the 22nd 

 binoculars should reveal the Pleiades star 

 cluster six degrees to the north (upper 

 left) of Venus. The following morning, 

 an old crescent Moon, just two and a 

 half days before new, is positioned well 

 to the left or Venus. 



In early June Mars sets about three hours 

 after the Sun. Compared to its brilliant 

 apparition last fall, the Red Planet now 

 appears small and faint. DuringJune it 

 dims slightly, from magnitude 1.7 to 

 1 .8, and it is now classified as a second- 

 magnitude object. Not only is Mars on 

 the far side of its orbit from Earth, but 

 on the 26th it's also at aphelion, its 

 greatest distance from the Sun. 



Mars moves eastward throughout 

 June, appearing within the Beehive 

 cluster (aka M44) in the constellation 

 Cancer, the crab, on the 15th. Mars is 

 also approaching Saturn during the first 

 half of June, and on the evening of the 

 17th, the Red Planet slides just 0.6 de- 



gree to Saturn's north (upper right). On 

 the 28th Mars lies less than two degrees 

 below a slender crescent Moon. 



Jupiter is installed grandly in the south, 

 a wonderfully easy target at dusk. Al- 

 though Venus outshines it, Jupiter is the 

 dominant light in its part of the sky and 

 still offers a generously big disk for tele- 

 scopes. The banded giant forms the base 

 of a large isosceles triangle with the 

 bright star Spica, in the constellation 

 Virgo, the virgin; the brilliant star Arc- 

 turus, in the constellation Bootes, the 

 herdsman, forms the apex of the trian- 

 gle. On the evening of the 6th a gib- 

 bous Moon appears a few degrees west 

 (to the right) of Spica; on the evening 

 of the 7th it is situated below and to the 

 right of Jupiter; and on the 8th, below 

 and to the left of Jupiter. 



Saturn is in Cancer in the western sky 

 at dusk. On the 1st it sets about four 

 hours after the Sun, but by the 30th it's 

 setting around the time that the two- 



hour twilight is ending. Mars, moving 

 much faster than the ringed planet, races 

 up to meet Saturn by the evening of the 

 17th (see the description in the notes 

 on Mars, above). In spite of its vastly 

 greater distance from Earth, Saturn 

 glows more than three and a half times 

 brighter than Mars. The crescent Moon 

 slides through this part of the sky on the 

 evenings of the 27th and 28th. At mid- 

 month Saturn's rings are tilted eighteen 

 and a half degrees to our line of sight. 



The Moon waxes to first quarter on the 

 3rd at 7:06 P.M., and to full on the 1 1 th 

 at 2:03 P.M. It wanes to last quarter on 

 the 18th at 10:08 A.M., and becomes 

 new on the 25th at 12:05 p.m. 



The solstice takes place on the 21st at 

 8:26 A.M. Summer officially begins in 

 the Northern Hemisphere; winter in 

 the Southern Hemisphere. 



Unless otherwise noted, all times are given 

 in eastern daylight time. 



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