Sky this Week
The following is a list of some interesting things to see up in the sky this week, June 17 thru June 23, 2007. Some of the events and times given are specific to the Colorado front range (40° N and the MDT timezone).
Highlights
- Watch the International Space Station fly over Tues. evening 10:01 pm and again on Thurs at 9:06 pm
- Moon occults star Regulus on Tuesday 6:05 to 7:25 pm MDT
- View the moon’s “Straight Wall” with your telescope Saturday evening
International Space Station
The ISS makes a couple good passes this week in the evening hours. Some observers have reported occasional sparkles or flashes, maybe from sunlight reflecting from surfaces of recently installed truss segments or panels.
Tues. Jun 19 is a bright magnitude -0.7 pass. It appears in the NW about 10:01:19 pm MDT and highest at 10:04:09 pm. It passes through Draca, then between Lyra and Hercules, and disappears in the Earth’s shadow in ESE about 10:05:14 pm
Thur. Jun 21 is another bright magnitude -0.5 pass. It won’t be quite dark yet, but still should be good. It rises in NW at 9:06:47 pm, passes through Draco and disappears in the ESE at 9:12:24 pm.
Sun
The Sun rises 5:33 to 5:34 am MDT and sets 8:34 to 8:35 pm MDT. The solstice is Thursday at 12:06 pm.
No regions are currently visible on the Sun’s disk, solar activity is expected to be very low this week.
Moon
The Moon is in first quarter on Jun 22 at 7:05 am. The best time to view many lunar features is when the terminator (transition from light to dark) is close by. The rising Sun projects long shadows from various features which makes details more apparent.
Sun. Jun 17( lunation 3) Furnerius, Geminus, Langrenus, Mare Crisium, Messala, Petavius
Mon. Jun 18 (lunation 4) Atlas, Cleomeds, Macrobius, Messier, Steinhail, Taruntius, Vallis Rheita, Watt
Tue. Jun 19 (lunation 5) Hercules, Piccolomini, Cauchy Gartner Fracastorius, Cauchy Tau, Omega. The moon occults the star Regulus in the daytime at 6:05pm and reappears at 7:25 pm. Regulus will disappear on the west (dark side) limb, about midway beween the north and south horns at 6:05pm MDT. It reappears approximately 7:20 to 7:25 pm. For us in the Denver area, draw an imaginary line from Hercules to Atlas to Mercuritis to the east limb to guess the location of the reappearance. See http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/7939457.html for more details.
Wed. Jun 20 (lunation 6) Catharina, Cyrillus, Lamont, Mare Tranquilliatatis, Plana, Posidonius, Rima Burg, Daniell, Posidonius, Rupes Altai, Theophilus
Thu. Jun 21 (lunation 7) Abenezra, Aristoteles, Eudoxus, Marolycus, Meton, Montes Caucasus, Rima Ariadaeus,Sulphicius Gallus
Fri. Jun 22 (lunation #8) Alphonsus, Arcimedes, Aristillus, Arzachel, Autolycus, Cassini, Herchell, Mipparchus, Mons Hadley, Montes Alpes
Sat. Jun 23 (lunation 9) Beer, Clavius, Eratosthenes, Maginus, Plato, Rima Birt, Tycho, Rupes Recta — straight wall
Planets
Venus is in constellation Cancer. It a bit brighter magnitude-4.3 and still more or less straight west after sunset. It appears through a telescope as a crescent about 6 days past new. There will be a beautiful occulation by the moon on Jun 18th, but unfortunately we won’t get to see it here. Next week Venus and Saturn will get really close together (within about 40 arc-min).
Saturn is in the constellation Leo to the upper left of Venus. It is magnitude +1.1 this week. Last week the Cassini spacecraft detected giant streams of particles being thrown into space from Saturn’s moon Tethys and Dione (see http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/cassini20070614.html).
Jupiter is in constellation Ophiuchus and is bright at magnitude -2.4
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot crosses the center at the following times this week:
Mon June 18 5:30 am
Tue June 19 2:01 am
Tue June 19 9:53 pm
Thu June 21 3:40 am
Thu June 21 11:31 pm
Sat June 23 5:18 am
Sun June 24 1:09 am
The GRS is visible for about an hour before and after the central meridian crossing.Jupiter moon transits:
Sun Jun 17 starting about 11:19 pm the shadow from Jupiter’s moon Io can be seen crossing the disk
Tue June 19 starting about 3:27am the shadow from Jupiter’s moon Europa crosses the disk
Pluto is at opposition on Tuesday and is magnitude +13.9. It is in constellation Sagittarius.
Uranus is in constellation Aquarius and is magnitude +5.8.
Neptune is in constellation Capricornus and is magnitude +7.9.
Mars is in constellation Pisces and is magnitude +0.7 It rises around 02:20 am.
Asteroids
There are 15 asteroids brighter than magnitude 11 this week.
Name Constellation RA Decl Mag
3 Juno Virgo 13:03:06 +03 42'05" 10.9
21 Lutetia Scorpio 16:08:08 -20 30'50" 10.5
4 Vesta Scorpio 16:11:11 -15 08'50" 5.9
85 Io Ophiuchus 17:00:49 -05 05'56" 10.8
9 Metis Sagittarius 18:05:08 -26 54'22" 9.7
1166 Sakuntala Sagittarius 19:13:49 -17 43'07" 11.0
192 Nausikaa Sagittarius 19:15:34 -33 10'47" 10.1
80 Sappho Aquila 20:22:57 -04 07'48" 10.7
71 Niobe Microscopium 21:03:14 -30 59'40" 11.0
40 Harmonia Capricornus 21:21:31 -18 22'43" 10.4
194 Prokne Pegasus 21:48:59 +04 29'03" 11.0
2 Pallas Pegasus 22:53:40 +10 54'30" 10.1
12 Victoria Pisces 00:11:00 +11 26'00" 10.9
8 Flora Pisces 01:38:43 +04 57'07" 10.6
29 Amphitrite Aries 02:09:32 +14 47'27" 11.0
Comets
If you have a large scope in your backyard, the comet C/2006 VZ13 (LINEAR) should be bit brighter this week at magnitude +11. It is in constellation Lacerta (between Andromeda and Cygnus).
Comet C/2007 E2 Lovejoy is about magnitude 13 so it will be a difficult target. It is in the northern part of constellation Ursa Major.
For more information, charts, etc. see http://aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html or http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets.html
Dark Sky
Early in the week you can still get in some more dark sky views if you can stay up past midnight.