Skylights now resumes its normal weekly schedule. Thanks again for
your patience.
We begin the week with the Moon just short of its full phase, which will be passed
during the day around noon on Sunday, June 11, with the Moon quite
out of sight from North America. The night of Saturday the 10th,
the Moon will therefore rise just before sundown, while on that of
Sunday the 11th, it will rise just after. Early in the week, the
Moon encounters Scorpius. The
night of Friday the 9th, it will be just west of the three-star
head of the Scorpion (marked nicely by bright Dschubba, Delta Sco), while the
following evening the Moon will rise just to the east of brighter
reddish Antares. (The star
actually gets occulted as viewed from parts of South America and
Africa.) The rest of the week sees the Moon waning in its gibbous phase
as it heads toward third
quarter on Sunday the 18th.
During the waning-gibbous journey, the Moon passes south of Neptune
on Thursday the 15th. The two large outer planets are ever so
slowly separating from each other, Uranus in
Aquarius (just southwest of the Circlet of Pisces) moving steadily
farther east of Neptune, which lingers in far eastern Capricornus. Even Pluto gets into the act. This
very dim, most distant planet (unless you want to count the larger
Kuiper Belt
object 2003 UB
313 informally called "Xena" that is now three times Pluto's
distance from the Sun) is currently near the "triple point" where
Serpens, Ophiuchus, and Sagittarius all come together, and goes through
opposition with the Sun on Friday the 16th.
Try looking for Mercury,
which toward the end of the week lies low in the west northwest
down and to the left of Gemini's
Castor and Pollux. The best sight will be of Mars and Saturn, as
Mars, now to the west of Saturn but moving quickly eastward,
prepares to come into close conjunction with the ringed planet (the
event taking place on Saturday the 17th). At the same time, the
pair will be close to the Beehive
Cluster in Cancer, making a
great binocular view. Both planets now set around 11:30 PM
Daylight Time. Look next to bright Jupiter, which is
transiting the meridian around 10 PM,
just about as Mercury sets, the giant planet seen to the west of Libra's Zubenelgenubi. The morning hours
hold further glory, as far brighter Venus
climbs above the eastern horizon just as dawn begins to brighten
the sky.
While admiring Jupiter, look to a bit to the west to find first
magnitude Spica in Virgo, and then further west to see
the distorted box that makes Corvus the Crow. The top two stars of the small but
prominent constellation act as pointers to Spica much as the two
front bowl stars of the Big
Dipper point to the North
Star.
