Episode 226 – Objects to Observe In June 2022

What are some easy starting advice for beginners getting into star gazing?

• The sky is broken up into degrees of measurement, 60 arc seconds = 1 arc minute = 1 degree. 
• THe Moon is about a ½ degree and your Fist = 10 degrees
• Try binoculars on the night sky / the partially lit moon

We have several Occultations this month…but what is an occultation:

• An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden by another object that passes between it and the observer. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks from view an object in the background. 

• Ceres 0.1 degrees South of Moon Occultation – Southern Canada and US

Ceres is a dwarf planet

Ceres was the first asteroid discovered, on 1 January 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi at Palermo Observatory in Sicily. Originally classified as a planet, it was reclassified an asteroid in the 1850s after dozens of other objects were found  in similar orbits. In 2006, it was reclassified as a dwarf planet – the only one always inside Neptune’s orbit – because, at 940 km  diameter, it is the only asteroid large enough for its gravity to make it into a sphere.

• June 6th Lunar X visible
  • 29 Amphitrite at opposition and magnitude 9.5
  • 200km in diameter making it 5th largest asteroid
  • discovered by Albert Marth on 1 March 1854, at the private South Villa Observatory, in Regent’s Park, London. It was Marth’s only asteroid discovery. Its name was chosen by George Bishop, the owner of the observatory, who named it after Amphitrite, a sea goddess in Greek mythology

• June 7th Lunar Straight wall and first quarter Moon
  • 41 Daphne at opposition and 9.8 magnitude
  • Daphne (minor planet designation: 41 Daphne) is a large asteroid from the asteroid belt. It is a dark-surfaced body 174 km in diameter is likely composed of primitive carbonaceous chondrites. 
  • It was discovered by H. Goldschmidt on May 22, 1856, but lost for over 6 years afterward…it is named after Daphne, the nymph in Greek mythology who was turned into a laurel tree. 

• June 11 Venus 1.6-degrees South of Uranus
• June 14th Full Moon
• Mercury Greatest elongation West so visible in morning Sky
• June 18th – Saturn 4-degrees North of Moon
• June 19th Vesta 0.7 degrees north of Moon – Occultation for S. America and Antarctica

Vesta –  Vesta (minor-planet designation: 4 Vesta) is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, with a mean diameter of 525 kilometres (326 mi). It was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers on 29 March 1807 and is named after Vesta, the goddess of home and hearth in Roman mythology.

Vesta is thought to be the second-largest asteroid, both by mass and by volume, after the dwarf planet Ceres,

• June 21 Last quarter Moon, Solstice, Jupiter 3-degrees North of the Moon
• June 22 Mars 0.9 degrees north of Moon – occultation for South Pacific
• June 24 Uranus 0.05 degrees North of Moon – Occultation from Hawaii to Australia
• June 26th Venus 3-degrees south of the Moon
• June 27th Mercury 4 degrees south of the Moon
• June 29th New Moon

But Noctilucent cloud season begins in earnest

• They are the highest clouds in Earth’s atmosphere, located in the mesosphere at altitudes of around 76 to 85 km
• Noctilucent clouds, or night shining clouds, are tenuous cloud-like phenomena in the upper atmosphere of Earth.
• They are made up of ice crystals and are only visible during astronomical twilight. Noctilucent roughly translates from Latin to English to mean “night shining”.
• Most often observed during summer months from latitudes between ±50° and ±70° and are visible only when the observer and the lower layers of the atmosphere are in Earth’s shadow, but while these very high clouds are still in sunlight.
• Studies suggest the increased atmospheric methane emissions produce additional water vapour once the methane molecules reach the mesosphere – creating, or reinforcing existing noctilucent clouds.