June 2nd Moon at Perigee Closest to earth 368,102 km / 228,728 mi
June 3rd Asteroid 43 Ariadne at Opposition (Magnitude 9.1)
43 Ariadne is the second-largest member of the Flora asteroid family. It was discovered by N. R. Pogson on April 15th 1857 and named after the Greek heroine Ariadne. At almost twice as long as it is wide and probably bi-lobed. It is a retrograde rotator, although its pole points almost parallel to the ecliptic towards
June 6 – New Moon – Perpetual twilight begins about now and lasts for 5 weeks
June 13th – Lunar X visible
June 14th – Lunar Straight Wall visible
Moon at Apogee – Furthers of the year at 404,077 km
June 20th – Summer Solstice
June 21st – Full Moon
Alister’s Anomaly of the month:
In case you haven’t done your June Calendar….
Most of us have heard the saying “full Moon rises at sunset and sets at sunrise” , and when you think about it, it makes sense because the Moon is opposite the Sun.
This month in Edmonton, the full Moon rises barely before midnight and sets just after 4 am.
What is truly super about this full Moon is that it is super low. Here’s why:
The Moon’s orbit is tilted a bit more than 5 degrees to the ecliptic, allowing the Moon to be much lower or much higher than the ecliptic. It’s an 18 year cycle and this year we’re at the extreme. When the Moon goes through Sagittarius, it will be way lower than the planets ever go. For us in the northern hemisphere, that means it rises much farther south than the winter Sun, and takes a really low arc across the south, likely staying yellow in colour for its short night.
For this summer’s star parties, the First Quarter Moon will be close to that low point Sagittarius, setting before it gets dark, really skewing the classic “new Moon plus or minus 3 days” for the dark window.
Alister.
P.S. And the opposite is true in December when the full Moon is way north of the ecliptic.
June 23rd – Moon Occults Ceres this evening
We get it reappearing but Ontario and East should get it going in.
June 27th – Saturn 0.8 degrees Below the Moon this morning
Better west of us
June 28th – Last Quarter Moon
Neptune 0.3 degrees below Moon
42 Isis at opposition at 9.2 Magnitude , in Sagittarius
Isis, minor planet designation: 42 Isis, is a main-belt asteroid, measuring 100 km in diameter with a stony composition. Discovered in Oxford by English astronomer N.R. Pogson on 23 May 1856, his first asteroid discovery. The asteroid’s name was chosen by Manuel John Johnson, director of the Radcliffe Observatory also in Oxford. Although Isis is the name of an Egyptian goddess, the name was chosen in homage to Pogson’s astronomer daughter, (Elizabeth) Isis Pogson. In addition, the Isis is the stretch of the River Thames that runs through Oxford
June 29th Lunar Curtis Cross visible
June 30th – Saturn , Neptune, Uranus, Mars and Jupiter Line up this week
The Actual Astronomy Podcast 