JUNITTA’S ASTRONOMY NOTES JUNE 2016
From June 1st to 4th, look NE one hour before sunrise to see Mercury. Below and to its right you will be able to see part of Taurus. Taurus is one of our Summer Constellations in the Southern Hemisphere but only part of it can be seen now. Full Moon in May was on the 22nd so we now have a waning Moon. On June 3rd you will be able to see it just above Mercury. New Moon will be on June 5th.
From June 10th to 15th will be a good opportunity to see the Constellation Leo. By 8pm, Jupiter will be just above Leo in the NW so look just below and to the right of Jupiter to see a triangle. Take a line left down towards the Moon, you will see big star, this is Regulus the brightest star in Leo– it will be not far from the Moon.
On June 17th, Mars will be close to the Moon, it will be the furtherist point in the now ‘stretched’ isosoles triangle composed of Mars, Antares and Saturn that we have been watching in May. Scorpio is now below and to the right of Mars.
Full Moon is on the 20th and the Solstice is on the 21st so the Sun will be travelling along the horizon towards Summer ie South again but many cold days ahead!!
No eclipses are forecast but there will be some on Jupiter, bound to be of course, it has 67 Moons and the main Moons involved are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, see if you can spot them, west is to the left and east is to the right. Another Moon to check out is Titan, one of Saturn’s more than 18 Moons. You will need a telescope for this but just seeing Saturn’s Rings will be awesome!!
SPACE JUNK Millions of pieces of debris from destroyed satellites, rockets etc etc are now proving so dangerous that Space Walks have been suspended. A piece of debris recently penetrated one of the windows of the ISS.
Australia is providing the technology for the clean-up but going by past efforts to clean up the mess we have made on Earth, I wouldn’t hold my breath!!
Times given are EST Australia.
Happy Viewing.
