Astronomy News
Night Sky 2018 – June Sunrise Sunset Mercury Sets Venus Sets
1st – 5:02am 1st – 9:16pm 15th – 10:23pm 1st – 11:55pm
10th – 4:57am 10th – 9:24pm 20th – 10:41pm 10th – 11:55pm
20th – 4:56am 20th – 9:29pm 25th – 10:49pm 20th – 11:46pm
30th – 5:00am 30th – 9:29pm 30th – 10:48pm 30th – 11:32pm
Moon Rise Moon Set Moon Rise Moon Set
------1st – 7:25am 16th – 7:57am 16th – 11:53pm
1st – 11:40pm 2nd – 8:16am 17th – 9:13am 18th – 12:31am
3rd – 12:20am 3rd – 9:13am 18th – 10:31am 19th – 1:03am
4th – 12:55am 4th – 10:13am 19th – 11:48am 20th – 1:29am (FQ)
5th – 1:24am 5th – 11:16am 20th – 1:04pm (FQ) 21st – 1:53am
6th – 1:50am (LQ) 6th – 12:22pm (LQ) 21st – 2:16pm 22nd – 2:16am
7th – 2:13am 7th – 1:29pm 22nd – 3:27pm 23rd – 2:39am
8th – 2:36am 8th – 2:38pm 23rd – 4:36pm 24th – 3:03am
9th – 2:58am 9th – 3:50pm 24th – 5:43pm 25th – 3:30am
10th – 3:22am 10th – 5:04pm 25th – 6:48pm 26th – 4:01am
11th – 3:48am 11th – 6:21pm 26th – 7:50pm 27th – 4:38am
12th – 4:20am 12th – 7:40pm 27th – 8:47pm 28th – 5:21am (Full)
13th – 4:59am (New) 13th – 8:56pm (New) 28th – 9:37pm (Full) 29th – 6:10am
14th – 5:47am 14th – 10:05pm 29th – 10:20pm 30th – 7:04am
15th – 6:47am 15th – 11:05pm 30th – 10:57pm ------A useful site: www.heavens- above.com A S Zielonka
On May 31st at midnight, Saturn will be just 1 degree below the Moon which is 7 degrees above the south east horizon. Between 1:00 – 2:00am the Moon passes within half a degree of the planet Mars….and at midnight on the 1st the Moon will be just 2 degrees above the south east horizon with Saturn 6 degrees above the horizon and 11 degrees to the upper right of it.
At 1:00am on the 1st the asteroid Vesta is 6 degrees above right of the Moon in Sagittarius. For further information please see 'Asteroids' and 'Sky Chart' in the website above.
Comet C/2016 M1 PANSTARRS is in the constellation of Sagittarius this month. On the night of the 1st at 1:00am it will be approximately 4½ degrees to the lower right of the Moon. Its last observable magnitude was 10 (May 14th). It is at perihelion on the 10th August. For further information please see 'Comets' and 'Constellations' in the website above.
Comet C/2016 N6 Panstarrs this month lies in the northern constellation of Lynx in the western sky after sunset. Its last observable magnitude was 12.5 (May 14th). On the 1st it will be 3.302AU from the Earth. Its at perihelion on the 18th July. For further information please see 'Comets' and 'Constellations' in the website above.
Comet C/2016R2 Panstarrs is in the constellation of Auriga the first part of June. On the 1st it is 3.393AU from Earth. It will also be in constellation of Lynx from the 10th in the evening sky in the west this month. Its last observable magnitude was 11.5 (May 14th). It was at perihelion last month. For further information please see 'Comets' and 'Constellations' in the website above.
For the first two weeks of June in the evening sky Jupiter will be no more than 1 degree from the 2.7 magnitude star Zubenelgenubi in the constellation of Libra. It is closest to it on the 6th.
During the late evenings around 11:00pm from the 1st - 8th the asteroid Ceres will be in the western sky. On the 3rd June it will be very close to the 3rd magnitude star Epsilon Leonis in the constellation of Leo which is at the opposite end of the reversed “?” to where the brighter star Regulus is. For further information please see 'Asteroids' and 'Constellations' in the website above.
At 1:15am on the night of the 2nd the Moon will be 4½ degrees above the south east horizon with Mars 6 degrees to the lower left and just above the horizon.
On the 3rd at 4:00am in the SSE, Mars will be 4 degrees to the lower left of the Moon.
On the 3rd NASA astronaut Scott Tingle, Anton Shkaplerov (Roscomos) and Norishege Kanai (JAXA) will undock their Soyuz spacecraft from the International Space Station (ISS) and land in Kazakhstan. (See 'News' section below)
All this month the asteroid Ceres is in the constellation of Leo. On the 3rd June it will be very close to the 3rd magnitude star Epsilon Leonis which is at the opposite end of the reversed “?” to where the brighter star Regulus is. Its path also takes it very close to the bright star Algieba (2nd Mag) on the 27th. For further information please see 'Asteroids' and 'Sky Chart' in the website above. This is a good month to view Ceres.
At 4:00am on the 4th in the SSE, Mars will be 8 degrees to the right of the Moon. The 4th magnitude star Theta Capricorni in Capricorn is just 1 degree to the above right of the Moon. To the right of Saturn on the 4th at 1:00am the bright stars Kaus Borealis 2.8 Mag and Mu Sagittarii 3.8Mag (5½ degrees apart) in Sagittarius, point the way to the asteroid Vesta thats 2½ degrees further on upper right. For further information please see 'Asteroids' and 'Constellations' in the website above.
On the 5th at 3:45am in the south east the bright stars Nashira (3.6 Mag) and Delta Capricorni (2.8 Mag) in the constellation of Capricorn point the way left to the Moon.
At 4:00am on the 6th Neptune is 8½ degrees to the left of the Moon and near the 4th magnitude star Phi Aquarii in the constellation of Aquarius.
Around mid-day* on the 6th* the astronauts Serena Aunon-Chancellor of NASA, Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA) and cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev of the Russian space agency Roscomos, will launch to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Russian spacecraft Soyuz FG from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The rocket will operate for nine minutes to deliver the spacecraft into a 200 Kilometer orbit from where it will manuever up into the Station's orbit of 400 Kilometers for a fully automated link-up. Their mission will last six months.
th Mercury is at superior conjunction on the 6 .
th On the 7 at 4:00am Neptune will be 5½ degrees to the upper right of the Moon.
th Uranus is 5½ degrees to the upper left of the crescent Moon at 4:00am on the 10 .
There is a planned launch on the 10th* from Xichang, China of the Long March 3A rocket. It will put the payload, Fengyun-2H meteorological satellite into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit. Fengyun (Chinese for 'Winds and Clouds') is China's Meteorological Satellite Program, consisting of at least one operational satellite in Geostationary Orbit and several satellites in polar orbits.
At 4:00am on the 11th the crescent Moon will be just 1 degree above the ENE horizon with Uranus 13½ degrees to the upper right of it.
There is a scheduled launch on the 11th* between 4:00 – 6:00am* from Yoshinobu, Japan of a HIIA rocket. It will be the sixth operational radar reconnaissance in Japan's Information Gathering Satellite (IGS) system.
As the sky begins to darken around 10:00pm on the 11th the bright stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini point the way to the planet Venus which is just 6 degrees to the lower left of Pollux in the WNW.
On the 14th at 9:50pm (if conditions are right) you may see a very thin crescent Moon barely a degree above the WNW (301degrees) horizon. Mercury is 6 degrees to the upper right of the Moon and 3½ degrees above the horizon.
There is a planned launch on the 15th* from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands aboard an Orbital ATK Pegasus rocket. Its payload is Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON). Its to study Earth's ionosphere, a vitally important region when attempting to understand the dynamics between Earth's atmosphere and weather. The mission was previously planned to launch last December.
At 10:30pm on the 15th a thin crescent Moon will be 10 degrees to the lower right of the planet Venus in the WNW and just 3½ degrees above the horizon.
th The crescent Moon will be just 5 degrees to the left of Venus in the western sky at 10:00pm on the 16 . On the 17th at midnight the crescent Moon will be 4 degrees above the western horizon with the bright star Regulus in Leo just 6 degrees to the upper left of it.
th At 10:00pm on the 18 Regulus will be 7 degrees to the lower right of the Moon.
On the 22nd at midnight, Jupiter will be 12½ degrees to the left of the Moon. The 2.7 magnitude star Zubenelgenubi in Libra is just 1½ degrees to the lower left of Jupiter.
At 10:00pm on the 23rd the bright star Zubenelgenubi in Libra is 4 degrees below the Moon with Jupiter 3 degrees to the lower right of the Moon.
Comet C/2016 M1 PANSTARRS is at its closest to Earth on the 24th. It will be 1.289AU from us. For further information please see 'Comets' and 'Constellations' in the website above.
On the 24th at 10:15pm looking south, the Moon will be 13 degrees to the left of Jupiter.
Vesta is 5 degrees to the left of the Moon at midnight on the 26th with Saturn 14 degrees to the lower left of the Moon. For further information please see 'Asteroids' and 'Sky Chart' in the website above.
An occultation of the asteroid Vesta by the Moon occurs on the 27th. This will only be visible from across the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the southern half of Mexico.
On the the evening of the 27th at 11:00pm the asteroid Vesta would now have moved partly through the constellationof Leo, and is now very close to the bright star Algieba (2nd Mag). on. For further information on this and other asteroids please see 'Asteroids' and 'Sky Chart' in the website above.
Saturn is best viewed this year through June/July though though not usually around the time of the full Moon. Saturn is at opposition on the 27th, and at 11:30pm in the SSE, Saturn will be just 2½ degrees to the lower left of the Moon. The 3.8 magnitude star Mu Sagittarii is less than ½ degree above the Full Moon.
The Bootids meteor shower reaches its peak in the early hours of the 28th.
On the 28th at 10:00am there is scheduled launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida of a Falcon 9 rocket to the ISS. Its payload is Dragon SPX-15. Its mission will carry cargo plus the ECOSTRESS Instrument (Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station) and a spare Latching End Effector for Canadarm2 as external payloads.
At 11:30pm on the 28th Saturn will be 9½ degrees to the right of the Moon. The 2.8 magnitude star Pi Sagittarii in Sagittarius is just 1¼ degrees to the left of the Moon.
On the night of the 29th at 12:30am Mars will be just 6 degrees above the south east horizon and 12½ degrees to the lower right of the Moon.... And at 4:15am in the south, Mars is 11 degrees to the left of the Moon.
At midnight on the 30th in the south east Mars is just 3 degrees above the horizon and 4 degrees below the Moon.
There are further launches planned from Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia.
Facts: Wezen also known as Delta Canis Majoris is a star in the constellation of Canis Major. It is a yellow-white supergiant and has a magnitude of +1.83. Since 1943 the spectrum of this star has served as one of the stable anchor points by which other stars are classified. Lying about 10 degrees south southeast of sirius, it only rises to about 11 degrees above the horizon, and is most visible in winter skies in the northern hemisphere. Wezen is about 1,800 light years away. It has a radius around 215 times that of the Sun. If Wezen was as close to Earth as Sirius , it would be as bright as a half-full moon. News: Serena Aunon-Chancellor (American) was hired by NASA as a flight surgeon and spent over nine months in Russia supporting medical operations for the International Space Station astronauts. On January 16th it was reported that she would replace the prime crew member Jeanette J Epps on this mission.
Alexander Gerst (German) is a licensed radioamateur, and has participated in the past in several ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) educational contacts. He also visited space as part of the Expedition 40/41 crew from May to November 2014. On the 7th October 2014 he performed his first EVA (extra-vehicular activity) with Reid Wiseman which took 6hrs 13 minutes.
Sergey Prokopyev (Russian) was selected as a test-cosmonaut candidate of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre Cosmonaut Office. He qualified as a test cosmonaut in July 2012.