Observing With Webb

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A monthly look at the night sky from your favorite Astronomy teacher at Pequea Valley High School

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Thursday Jun 04, 2020

June 2020

Thursday Jun 04, 2020

June brings us all the naked-eye planets at some points in the month, Venus’s introduction to the morning with the Moon, and mornings with four naked-eye planets visible.

Welcome to Observing With Webb, where a high school astronomy teacher tells you what you’re looking at, why it’s so cool, and what you should check out later this month…at night.

EVENTS...

Full Moon – 5^th (Visible all night)

Last Quarter Moon – 13^th (Visible from midnight into the morning)

New Moon – 21^st (darkest skies)

First Quarter Moon – 28^th (Visible until midnight)

7^th – 8^th – Close Encounter – Moon, Jupiter, Saturn– Get out after midnight these two nights at the find the Moon. On the night of the 7^th, the Moon will be to the right of bright Jupiter, and to the left of Jupiter will be slightly less bright Saturn. On the next night, the 8^th, the Moon will move to be about 5˚ below Saturn and Jupiter, which are in essentially the same spot in the sky.

12^th – 13^th – Close Encounter – Moon, Mars – Get out there after 2am these mornings, but well before sunrise (5:34am) and find the Moon with red, ruddy Mars nearby. The Moon will be about 10˚ or one fist-width to the right of Mars on the 12^th, and 4˚ below Mars on the 13^th.

19^th – Very Close Encounter – Moon, Venus – Venus starts its rest-of-the-year showcase as a morning star with a great apparition by rising with the Moon this morning. Make sure you have a nice view of the ENE horizon by 4:20am when they rise less than 1˚ apart from each other. Sunrise is 5:35am, so you’ll probably only have about half an hour to get pictures.

20^th – Summer Solstice – This is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. There’s a bit of explanation as to why here.

21^st – (Africa & Asia) Annular Eclipse of the Sun – Not visible in any way in North America, but pay attention to social media for some awesome photography from people with excellent equipment, lots of planning time, and skills with post-processing. They’ll be photographing the Moon passing in front of the Sun, but the Moon is in the further-from-Earth part of its orbit, so it doesn’t totally obscure the Sun’s surface, so you get ring effect.

Naked-eye PLANETS...

Sunset – Mercury

Mercury – For only about two weeks, catch a glimpse of the innermost, fastest-moving, and often toughest to see visible planet of our solar system. Just watch sunset, look WNW, and find the bright light below Pollux and Castor, less than 15˚ above the horizon.

Throughout the night – Saturn, Jupiter

Saturn, Jupiter – Both planets are rising above the ESE horizon by midnight on the 1^st, 10pm on the 30^th, and make their way toward the SSW by sunrise. To find Jupiter, just look for the brightest spot no more than 30˚ above the horizon. Saturn will be about 5˚ to the left. These make a great pair for getting your binoculars and telescopes out. You can see the rings of Saturn and moons of Jupiter fairly easily, and not have to do too much to switch from one planet to the other.

Morning - Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter

Saturn, Jupiter – Still hanging out up there, but more toward the South or SW by sunrise. See above for details.
Mars – Trails behind, or to the left of, Saturn and Jupiter by about 50˚ or 5 fist-widths, and is about 30-40˚ above the SE horizon. Look for the non-twinkling red dot.
Venus – After about a week and a half, you might be able to see Venus low on the NNE horizon after 5am and before sunrise. As the month goes by, Venus rises earlier and moves away from the Sun. On the 30^th, Venus rises at 3:45am, and is about 20˚ above the horizon by sunrise (5:38am). Prepare for Venus to be a morning “star” for the next 6 months!

CONSTELLATIONS...

Use a sky map from www.skymaps.com to help you out.

After Dinner, Before Bed:

Big Dipper, Bootes, Virgo, Corona Borealis, Hercules – Gaze almost vertically as you face the NW, and you’ll easily find the Big Dipper: seven very bright stars that form a spoon shape. Now if you take the handle of the Dipper, follow its curve to the next bright star you see, about 30˚ away, which is Arcturus. “Follow the arc to Arcturus.” That’s the brightest star in Bootes, which looks like a kite. Take that same curve, and follow it about another 20˚ to “speed on to Spica”, the brightest star in Virgo, one of my favorite constellations, since it reminds me of the Dickinson Mermaid. Now go back to Bootes, and just to the left of Bootes are seven stars that form the northern crown Corona Borealis, which looks more like a small bowl or a “C” in the sky. Continue a little further to the left and you’ll find the keystone asterism which is part of the constellation Hercules. Extra Challenge! Look for M13, the Hercules Cluster in between two of Hercules’ “keystone” stars. It known as the best globular cluster in the northern skies. It will be a fuzzy spot in binoculars and will be even cooler through a telescope

Before Work:

Summer Triangle – Lyra, Cygnus, Aquila – Look pretty much straight above you, and find the brightest star up there. You’ll notice a parallelogram attached to it. This is the brightest star Vega, part of the constellation Lyra, the harp. Directly above you will be Cygnus the Swan, with its brightest star Deneb. It will look like a large cross, or if you look out a little further, a swan flying above you. Below Cygnus and Lyra is the third constellation of the Summer Triangle, Aquila the Eagle, with its brightest star Altair. The three bright stars in this one can be easily confused for Orion’s belt, given their similar size, however they are not in line as straight, and are part of a bigger diamond shape. Use a star chart to find small Delphinus and Sagitta in the area as well.

Don’t forget this podcast is found on my Podbean page, Stitcher, and iTunes. There’s also a video version on my YouTube Channel and I can be found on Twitter and Instagram as @mrwebbpv. The Pequea Valley Planetarium and its events and updates are on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as @pvplanetarium.

Wednesday Apr 29, 2020

May 2020

Wednesday Apr 29, 2020

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LISTEN as a podcast on Podbean, Stitcher, or iTunes

Social Media: @mrwebbpv on Twitter and Instagram

@pvplanetarium on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Brilliant week-long morning dance of the planets and our Moon paired with warmer nights and a challenging evening conjunction and close encounter at the end of the month make May a wonderful month to get out under the stars.

Welcome to Observing With Webb, where a high school astronomy teacher tells you what you’re looking at, why it’s so cool, and what you should check out later this month…at night.

EVENTS...

Full Moon – 7^th (Visible all night)

Last Quarter Moon – 14^th (Visible from midnight into the morning)

New Moon – 22^nd (darkest skies)

First Quarter Moon – 29^th (Visible until midnight)

11^th – 17^th – Close Encounter – Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars – Get out after 4:00am but before 5:30am DST each of these mornings to enjoy, moving left to the right, the lineup of Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter in the S, but also enjoy the Moon crashing through the party. The waning gibbous Moon will be about 14˚ to the right of Jupiter on the 11^th, 3˚ directly below Jupiter on the 12^th, 8˚ below and to the left of Saturn on the 13^th. On the 14^th, it becomes a third quarter Moon, and is about a fist-width to the right of Mars, moving to about 4˚ down and to the left of Mars the next morning. The next two mornings, the Moon is more of a crescent, and creeps away from the planetary lineup, but is still part of the morning party.

21^st – Conjunction - Venus, Mercury – Get out after sunset and watch the Western sky. The first point of light you’ll find is Venus. As it gets darker, see if you can find Mercury, just one pinky-width down and to the left of Venus.

23^rd – 24^th – Close Encounter - Venus, Moon, Mercury – Get out after sunset and watch the Western sky on the 23^rd. Again, the first point of light you’ll find is Venus. As it gets darker, see if you can find Mercury and the very young and thin crescent Moon. Mercury is 3˚ up and to the left of Venus, and the Moon is about 5˚ below Venus. You might have better luck on the 24^th, however, considering the Moon moves higher and is thicker, just 6˚ up and to the left of Mercury.

Naked-eye PLANETS...

Sunset

Venus (West) – This is your last chance to check out Venus, as it gets lower and lower in the West every evening. It starts out 35˚ above the horizon, and drops out of sight during the last week of May for its inferior conjunction, when it’s between the Sun and Earth. If you have a telescope, you’ll be able to see the shift from a thick crescent Venus to a thin crescent Venus throughout the month. If you miss it, you’ll have to wake up before sunrise, as it transfers over to a morning star for the rest of the year.

Throughout the night – None

Morning

Saturn, Jupiter, Mars – The main show in the mornings is the lineup of these three planets. Get out well before sunrise (sunrise is between 6:00am and 5:30am) any morning, and start by finding the brightest spot in the South, which will be Jupiter. From here, you can find Saturn and Mars. Saturn will be the bright spot that is consistently less than a fist-width to the left of Jupiter all month. Mars has a different story, starting out 20˚ or two fist-widths away from Saturn, and then moves further and further left each day, approaching 40˚ or four fist-widths away from Saturn by the 31^st.

CONSTELLATIONS...

Use a sky map from www.skymaps.com to help you out.

After Dinner, Before Bed:

Leo, Big Dipper, Bootes – Leo will be high in the South, almost straight above you. It has a backward question mark with a right triangle to the left of the question. If you look above Leo, behind you and high in the sky, you should find the Big Dipper: seven very bright stars that form a spoon shape. Now if you take the handle of the Dipper, follow its curve to the next bright star you see, about 30˚ away, which is Arcturus. “Follow the arc to Arcturus.” That’s the brightest star in Bootes, which looks like a kite. Take that same curve, and follow it about another 20˚ to “speed on to Spica”, the brightest star in Virgo, one of my favorite constellations, since it reminds me of the Dickinson Mermaid.

Before Work:

Lyra, Hercules, Hercules Cluster – Look pretty much straight above you, and find the brightest star up there. You’ll notice a parallelogram attached to it. This is the brightest star Vega, part of the constellation Lyra, the harp. Next to that is a keystone shaped constellation called Hercules. On the right side of the keystone is a small cluster of stars known at the Hercules Cluster, which is a collection of hundreds of stars on the outskirts of our galaxy. Given how high it is in the sky right now, you might catch its faint fuzziness with your naked eye, but a set of binoculars or a small telescope will really help you see it.