<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We begin this month with a rather unique observing challenge known as \u2018opposing crescent Moons\u2019.\u00a0 This happens when the last faint crescent Moon of the latest cycle of phases is seen one day and the first new crescent Moon of the next cycle is seen the next day.\u00a0 On December 31, 2013 and January 1, 2014, Alex Seidier was able to see this phenomenon with the two sightings taking place just 34 hours and 37 minutes apart.\u00a0 In that Seidier\u2019s observation was optically aided, we do not think anyone will beat his record this time around, but if one nails these two crescent Moon sightings, it would certainly be a personal viewing event worth remembering.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The more difficult of the two observations will be just before dawn on June 17.\u00a0 Look ENE for the old crescent Moon just to the lower left of <\/span>Mercury<\/b> – it will be very near the horizon.\u00a0 Even if you miss this sighting, look just below <\/span>Pollux & Castor <\/b>(in <\/span>Gemini – the Twins)<\/b> in the twilight skies on June 18 (WNW – again, very close to the horizon).\u00a0 Happy hunting.\u00a0 If you do see the <\/span>New Crescent Moon<\/b> on June 18, it will be less than 24 hours into the new Lunar Cycle.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Other Lunar events for June will include the <\/span>Full Moon <\/b>(June 3), the <\/span>Last Quarter Moon <\/b>(June 10), the <\/span>New Moon <\/b>(June 18), and the <\/span>First Quarter Moon <\/b>(June 26).\u00a0 Let us also not forget to mark the <\/span>Summer Solstice<\/b> at 10:58 a.m. EDT June 21 when the <\/span>Sun<\/b> will reach its highest point in our Southern Sky.\u00a0 The Great Lakes Region will still be a few weeks away from the warmest temperatures of the year even though June 21 still marks the official beginning of Summer and our longest period of daylight.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Morning planets in June include the aforementioned Mercury.\u00a0 This is not a great apparition for viewing Mercury for northerners as it will only climb about 2 degrees above the horizon early in the month.\u00a0 Shining at -2.2 in <\/span>Aries – the Ram, Jupiter <\/b>will be the standout object in the dawn sky.\u00a0 It will start low in the East and climb higher as the month progresses.\u00a0 <\/span>Saturn<\/b> will appear in <\/span>Aquarius – the Waterbearer – <\/b>look to the southeast early in the month and watch it climb higher toward the south later in the month.\u00a0 Saturn\u2019s magnitude will be +0.9 to +0.7 and <\/span>The Ringed Planet<\/b> will begin retrograde motion (appearing to move backwards through the fixed stars) on June 17.\u00a0 The Rings of Saturn will be tipped 7.3 degrees from edge-on, the least tilt we will see for this year.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the west, <\/span>Venus <\/b>will start the month 5 degrees left of Pollux one hour after sunset.\u00a0 Just left and slightly above Venus, (almost directly west) will be <\/span>Mars.\u00a0 <\/b>Venus will continue to close the gap between the two planets throughout the month\/<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Venus reaches its greatest elongation (the furthest distance it will appear from the edge of the Sun) on June 3rd and will brighten in magnitude from -4-4 to -4.7 as it moves closer to us.\u00a0 On June 1, it will be 67.8 million miles from <\/span>Earth<\/b> and close to 46.3 million miles by June 30.\u00a0 The disk of the planet will be nearly 23 arcseconds across and 51 percent illuminated.\u00a0 The crescent will be large enough to detect even with binoculars if observed in daylight or bright twilight when the contrast between the light and dark sides is the greatest.\u00a0 After that, the planet will be too bright against the dark sky to see the crescent shape.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Our June Historical Astronomical event takes us back to 1978.\u00a0 James Christy suggested to his supervisor at the US Naval Observatory that they should request photos of <\/span>Pluto<\/b> to be taken with the 60-inch reflector telescope at Flagstaff, Arizona.\u00a0 The telescope was engaged in taking photos of Neptune and Uranus at the time and Christy felt it would be a good opportunity to get some photos of Pluto as well.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When the Pluto photos arrived on June 21, 1978, Christy sat down with them to take his mind of his family’s impending move from their apartment to a new house.\u00a0 Using a Starscan imaging computer, he began to examine the photographic plates.\u00a0 The plates had been labeled as \u2018defective\u2019 but he still took a look at them, soon spying a bulge along Pluto\u2019s limb.\u00a0 Upon further investigation, he was convinced he was seeing an undiscovered moon.\u00a0 When he reported the findings to his supervisor, he responded, \u201cJim, you\u2019re crazy!\u201d\u00a0 By the next Friday, June 23, Christy had found confirmation of his newly discovered moon on other photographic plates that had been taken in June of 1970.\u00a0 Mathematical calculations matched the movements of Pluto with an orbiting moon further cementing Christy\u2019s notion that he had discovered a new moon.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Christy wanted to name the new object \u2018Char\u2019 in honor of his wife and added \u2018on\u2019 so it would conform to other scientific terms such as \u2018electron\u2019 or \u2018proton\u2019.\u00a0 Further investigation of the name proved \u2018Charon\u2019 was the Green name for the ferryman who conveyed the dead across the River Styx, a good fit for the companion of Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Compiled by Ken Raisanen of WOAS-FM – information provided by <\/span>Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar<\/span><\/i>, Michigan State University.\u00a0 More information and subscription information can be found on their website at <\/span>http:\/\/abramsplanetarium.org\/<\/span><\/a>skycalendar\/ or on Twitter at <\/span>http:\/\/twitter.com\/AbramsSkyNotes<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 Yearly subscriptions cost $12 and can be started anytime.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Okay, they are miming and using dueling keyboards . . .\u00a0 but we thought we would get a jump on the season here with the Loving Spoonful . . .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We begin this month with a rather unique observing challenge known as \u2018opposing crescent Moons\u2019.\u00a0 This happens when the last faint crescent Moon of the latest cycle of phases is seen one day and the first new crescent Moon of the next cycle is seen the next day.\u00a0 On December 31, 2013 and January […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2847"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2850,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions\/2850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}