Vern’s Weblog

The following is a list of some interesting things to see up in the sky this week, June 24 thru June 30, 2007. Some of the events and times given are specific to the Colorado front range (40° N and the MDT timezone).

Highlights

• Watch the shadow from Jupiter’s moon Io move across the planet’s disk starting early tomorrow morning, Monday Jun 25 1:10 am
• Venus and Saturn get closer and closer together this week. On Saturday June 30 they will be only about 40 arc-min apart. They will be visible in the same field of many telescopes with a low power eyepiece.
• Comet C/2006 VZ13 (Linear) at its brightest late in the week.

International Space Station
There are no bright passes this week.

Sun
The Sun rises 5:34 to 5:36 am MDT this week. It sets at 8:36 pm all week. There are currently no regions visible on the solar disk. Solar activity is expected to remain at very low levels this week.

Moon
The Moon is full next Saturday at 7:49 am MDT. Since this will be the second full moon this month, it is called a “blue moon”.

Here is some features to look for on Sunday and Monday (lunation 10 and 11):

And some features for lunation 12 and 13 (Tuesday and Wednesday):

Planets
Venus is in constellation Leo and is still very bright at magnitude -4.3. Venus and Saturn will be very close together on Sat. June 30. Look for them low the WNW after sunset.

Saturn is magnitude +1.1 in the constellation Leo.

Jupiter is nearly straight south around 11 pm in constellation Ophiuchus and just to the upper left of Antares. It is quite bright at magnitude -2.5. If you have a telescope watch for the Great Red Spot (GRS) cross the middle of Jupiter at the following times this week:

Tues June 26 2:47 am
Tues June 26 10:38 pm
Thur June 28 4:25 am
Fri June 29 0:16 am
Mon July 1 1:54 am

The GRS can be seen for about an hour before and after the times indicated.
Jupiter’s moon Io transits across the disk on Mon June 25 starting 1:10 am MDT.

Pluto is magnitude +13.9 in constellation Sagittarius

Mars is in constellation Aries and is magnitude +0.7. It rises in the ENE just before 2 am.

Uranus is magnitude +5.8 and is in the constellation Aquarius.

Neptune is magnitude +7.9 and is in the constellation Capricornus.

Mercury is not visible.

Comets
This week and next may be the best time to observe Comet C/2006 VZ13 (Linear), it will disappear from our view in mid-August. It will brighten from magnitude 10.3 today to nearly magnitude 8 next Sunday, July 1st, so its within range of small scopes and giant binoculars. It is currently in constellation Draco. It has a 2.5 arc min wide halo, there is no tail. See http://www.skyhound.com/sh/comets/2006_VZ13.gif for a finder chart. Unfortunately, the full moon will make it tough to locate, it may be best to wait until July 3 and try to find it before the moon rises (about 11 pm).

Asteroids
There are 10 asteroids brighter than magnitude 11. Locating asteroids visually is a challenge and a lot tougher than the magnitude might indicate. You’ll need accurate star charts to find them. Sketch the star fields an hour or so apart to show movement of the asteroid. Positions below are for June 30 at 10:30 pm MDT.

Name           Constellation   RA        Dec        Mag 

  21 Lutetia   Scorpius        16:03:44 -20 30'49"  10.7 

   4 Vesta     Scorpius        16:07:24 -15 37'14"   6.0 

  85 Io        Ophiuchus       16:55:39 -04 55'15"  11.0 

   9 Metis     Sagittarius     17:57:31 -27 06'32"   9.9

1166 Sakuntala Sagittarius     19:07:58 -19 31'09"  10.7 

  80 Sappho    Aquila          20:19:38 -03 30'32"  10.5 

  40 Harmonia  Capricornus     21:20:13 -18 50'53"  10.2 

 194 Prokne    Pegasus         21:52:06 +04 25'34"  10.8 

   2 Pallas    Pegasus         22:54:45 +10 57'51"  10.0 

  12 Victoria  Pisces          00:21:20 +12 52'28"  10.9

Deep Sky
The Moon interferes with our views of dim galaxies and nebula this week.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 24th, 2007 at 6:12 pm and is filed under Astronomy, Sky this Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.