Astronomy news for the week starting Friday, June 27, 2014.
Having passed its new phase the morning of Friday, June 27, the
Moon climbs as a waxing crescent out of
western evening dusk. Technically you could see the slim crescent
by the evening of the Saturday the 28th, but it would be a
difficult catch, as would be its passage five degrees south of
Jupiter. From the evening of Monday the 30th through
Thursday, July 3, the growing crescent
will glide beneath Leo, as the
celestial Lion gradually gives way to western twilight. The
evening of Tuesday the 1st, the Moon will be south of Regulus. We don't see first quarter until next week, the morning
of Saturday the 5th. The Moon passes apogee, where it is farthest from the Earth, on Monday
the 30th, as May turns to June.
Jupiter is pretty much gone, hidden by evening twilight. But we
get to see Mars and Saturn in one
viewing, both planets in the southwest as evening falls. Bright
reddish Mars, which is now in rapid direct, or easterly, motion
relative to the background stars, will be to the northwest of Spica in Virgo, and closing in on it. To the left (east) find
Saturn still in Libra between Alpha and Beta Librae, the two planets
proceeding in stately fashion toward the western horizon. Mars
sets about 1 AM Daylight Time, Saturn an hour and a half later.
The naked-eye sky is then planetless until Venus rises around 3:30 AM shortly after the beginning of
dawn. On the morning of Wednesday the 2nd, Venus passes four
degrees north of Aldebaran,
the star practically invisible.
The major story of the week is of Earth, which passes aphelion,
the point in its orbit farthest from the Sun, 94.5 million miles
(152 million kilometers), 1.67 percent farther than average, on
Thursday the 3rd. That aphelion passage occurs during the high
heat of northern summer immediately tells that the seasons have little to do with
distance from the Sun. Instead they are overwhelmingly produced by the 23.4 degree
tilt of the Earth's axis against the orbital perpendicular. Solar
distance has a minor effect that is effectively lost in the
distribution of moderating
oceans. And as if to celebrate US Independence Day, Pluto (almost lost within the Milky Way in Sagittarius) goes through opposition with the Sun the
morning of Friday the 4th.
Look upward to the north in mid-evening to see the bowl of the Little Dipper high above the North
Star, Polaris. Local artificial
lighting will hide most of the Dipper, but the two front bowl
stars, also called "the Guardians of the Pole," might shine
through. To the east rise the stars of summer along with the
glory of the Milky way, which is richest toward the south in Scorpius (which really does look like a
scorpion) and Sagittarius (with its obvious "Little Milk Dipper"), the latter hosting the center of
the Galaxy and its supermassive black hole of four million solar
masses.
