What's Up: June 4 - June 11 by Jared May

What’s Up This First Week of June

This week will have sporadic clear nights – It looks like Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights are looking promising. There might be a few straggler clouds, but don’t let those ruin an entire night of stargazing or astrophotography. The temperature on these nights will be rather comfortable, hovering in the 60s and 70s. During the upcoming nights, be on the lookout for Venus and the bright full moon, Mars nestled in the Beehive Cluster, the still-shining M101 supernova, and early-morning Jupiter.

This weekend will host the full moon and Venus at its greatest eastern elongation. Shortly after sunset, the western sky will grab your attention with Venus, which is bright enough it almost looks like an airplane flying overhead – except Venus won’t be blinking. Since this planetary sister will be at its greatest eastern elongation, it appears to be at its furthest point from the sun. You’ll recall last week was Mercury’s greatest western elongation. The eastern sky will glow with the full moon (officially on Sunday night). A fully lit moon will let stargazers see all of the significant craters: Tycho, Copernicus, Byrgius, etc.

This weekend, after finding Venus at its greatest eastern elongation, turn your attention 10 degrees (about the distance of one fist held at arms-length) northeast to spot Mars peaking out of the darkening skies after sunset. With the naked eye, Mars will appear to be a vibrantly red “star”. Using a pair of binoculars or a wide-field telescope to view Mars this weekend will show it passing through the famous Beehive Cluster. This cluster is home to about 1,000 stars that shine bright blue. Their color is indicative of their very hot surface temperatures and relatively young stellar ages.

The planet Mars will pass in front of the “Beehive” cluster this week. This can bee (?) seen in binoculars.

Venus is at Greatest Eastern Elongation (separation from the sun) this week.

If you haven’t heard yet of M101’s type II supernova, read last week’s post to get up to speed! A star exploded in the nearby galaxy M101 that has grabbed the attention of most astrophotographers. A supernova nearly outshines its host galaxy just after it explodes and the M101 supernova is no exception. These events are very short-lived on cosmic scales, but long enough for most people to take a look. Type II supernovae usually shine brightly for the first few weeks or months. The graph shows the two main supernovae types and their brightness (relative to our sun in absolute magnitude) as a function of time. [https://www.schoolsobservatory.org/discover/projects/supernovae/typeI]

A light curve is a graph of the brightness of a an object over time. Supernovae start very bright and then taper off in brightness over hundreds of days.

If you are an early-morning person, step outside and gaze up at the eastern skies before sunrise to be greeted by Mercury, Jupiter, and Saturn. All three of these planetary bodies make great binocular or telescope targets. A telescope with a long focal length (>750 mm) will be able to reveal the red and white stripes of Jupiter’s atmosphere. Telescopes with even longer focal lengths (>1000 mm) will be able to see the shadows cast by the Galilean moons when they eclipse the sun over Jupiter. Although currently the moons only cast a shadow after the sun has risen and washed out Jupiter or after the planet has set below the horizon. In a few weeks, this will be visible from America.

Jupiter’s moons can be seen, in the morning sky, in binoculars and small telescopes.

Get outside and bring a pair of binoculars, a telescope, or even just your eyes to view what the cosmos has to offer. The weather will be great this week and the sky will be hosting several interesting astronomical events. Be on the lookout for Venus in the west near the setting sun, the full moon brightening the eastern sky, Mars passing through the Beehive Cluster, M101’s supernova still shining bright, and an early-morning planetary show.

Clear Skies!