Star Calendar
June 2016
Star Calendar Planets:
Moon crosses the seasonal colures (meridians of solstices and equinoxes) every month. This month Sun and Moon cross opposite colures on the same day. Just as the length of daylight changes with the seasons – so does the time of Moon-Up change rapidly through the month. For this month, Moon crosses the colures of Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring respectively on the: 4th at 23:32, 12th at 20:00, 20th at 08:26 and 27th at 00:25. The duration of Moon-Up on those days is: 14h35m, 12h29m, 10h4m and 12h26m. The extreme are somewhat subdued because the inclination of the Moon’s path with respect to the celestial equator is currently less than the Sun’s inclination; in a few years’ time the lunar seasons will be more exaggerated than the Sun’s.
Mercury may come into view mid-month – low in the ENE at around 4:30AM. I was not able to do an elaborate setup to view last month’s transit – but twice thought I might have seen it through welder’s glass. A lot of folks took nice photos though.
Venus crosses the backside of the Sun on the 6th. We may expect to see her next in mid-July.
Sun now occupies the sky for a pretty steady 15 hours a day. Note below the subtle differences between earliest/longest/latest dates and times. This year the solstice occurs on the same day as Full Moon – which means that the Sun is making a long summer crossing while the Moon takes a short wintery walk – rising very south-of-east and culminating very low in the sky.
Mars continues to be in our face this month but his rise-time advances more slowly as he approaches the end of his loop on the 30th. He is receding, first slowly, then rapidly, and will be fading noticeably as July approaches. On the 1st of this month he shines at magnitude -2.1 (brighter than Jupiter) and by July at -1.4 (rather like a red Sirius).
Jupiter still dominates the SW as darkness falls – but Mars holds sway in the SE.
Saturn varies less in brightness and follows Mars across the sky – trailing him by about an hour. Saturn is as bright now as the brightest summer star (Vega), but, appearing much lower, tends to draw less notice perhaps.
Star Calendar Days:
1 Sunrise/sunset in Spring Valley at 5:26/20:23 (14h57m daylight)
3 Saturn in opposition (exactly opposite the Sun in our sky)
4 Jupiter is at eastern quadrature (exactly ¼ of the sky from the Sun)
Moon occults Aldebaran during the day (again in October at night)
5 Mercury at largest angle from Sun in morning sky
6 Venus at superior conjunction (crosses behind Sun)
8 Moon to left of Castor and Pollux (Gemini) at 9:30PM
10 Moon between Regulus and Jupiter tonight
13 Sun, Mars, and Saturn fall on a line in space; Martian opposition of Saturn
14 Sunrise earliest in Spring Valley, at 5:23AM
14-15 Moon above Spica and between Mars and Jupiter
17 Moon, Mars, Antares and Saturn make a lozenge, culminating as darkness falls
20 Sunrise/sunset in Spring Valley at 5:24/20:32 (15h8m daylight)
Full Strawberry Moon 7:02AM
Solstice at 6:34PM EDT
23-24 St. John’s Eve/Day, traditional mid-summer
27 Sunset latest in Spring Valley, at 8:33PM
30 Sunrise/sunset in Spring Valley at 5:27/20:33 (15h6m daylight)
Mars stationary to stars, end of retrograde loop, begins normal motion
