{"id":919,"date":"2023-05-30T18:30:27","date_gmt":"2023-05-30T18:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=919"},"modified":"2023-05-29T18:31:13","modified_gmt":"2023-05-29T18:31:13","slug":"june-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/june-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"June 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As May ended,\nMercury had just been at greatest elongation and began its retreat\nfrom the morning sky. It won’t be at superior conjunction until July\n1, so most sky watchers have about the first half of this month to\ntry to spot it. The messenger planet is predicted to be at\ndichotomy\u2014its semi-circle phass–on June 4. But because of an\nunexplained phenomenon, it may not look like it’s at dichotomy until\nfour mornings later. If you have a finder guide, you can watch\nMercury, Uranus, and Vesta somewhat close to each other. From middle\nnorthern latitudes, they’ll be below Jupiter in the morning sky. Use\nbinoculars or a telescope to magnify Uranus and Vesta into view.\nJupiter is near Cetus the sea monster’s head all month. Rising around\nmidnight is Saturn, not moving much in Aquarius this month. And in\nthe evening, Venus follows Mars on the way from Gemini through Cancer\nand almost to Leo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mars\nmoves through the Beehive Cluster in Cancer on the 3rd<\/sup>\nand 4th<\/sup>.\nThe cluster, known also as M44 and Praesepe, is worth a look in\nmagnfication with or without a visiting planet. It’s called the\nBeehive because it resembled a cluster of busy bees. On the 4th<\/sup>,\nVenus is at greatest elongation, but it will continue moving directly\nall month. So, Mars moves eastward out of Cancer with Venus in hot\npursuit. The goddess planet passes through the Beehive on the 14th<\/sup>.\nRight around the end of the month, Venus seems like it’s another week\nor two from catching up to and passing the red planet. But it’s not\nmeant to be. They’ll be 3.9\u00b0 apart on July 1. After that, Mars gains\nas Venus slows down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Look\nfor Venus to be at dichotomy, also predicted to be around the 3rd<\/sup>\nor 4th<\/sup>,\nbut appearing as a semi-circle around the 1st<\/sup>.\nThat’s because of the same unexplained phenomenon that makes\nMercury’s dichotomy appear at a different time than it should.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

June starts with\nthe moon almost full. Full moon is on the 3rd<\/sup>. Southern\nlunistice is the next day at 27.9\u00b0 from the equator. Lunar perigee\nis on the 6th<\/sup> at 364,900 km. Last quarter is on the 10th<\/sup>.\nThe moon crosses the equator going north the next day. A waning\ncrescent passes by Jupiter on the 14th<\/sup>, Uranus the next\nday, and Mercury the day after that. New moon is on the 18th<\/sup>.\nThe moon reaches 27.8\u00b0 north of the equator that day. A waxing\ncrescent moon passes by Venus on the 22nd<\/sup> and then Mars\nlater that day UT. Lunar apogee is also on the 22nd<\/sup> at\n405,400 km. The moon passes near Regulus on the 23rd<\/sup>.\nFirst quarter is on the 26th<\/sup>. The moon passes near Spica\non the 27th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Daytime\nArietids meteor shower is expected to peak on the 7th<\/sup>\naround 22 hours UT. You might catch a few meteors at dawn as Aries\nrises that week. If you are an amateur radio operator or a radio\nDX-er, you may hear the effect of the meteors briefly ionizing trails\nand making radio signals travel hundreds or thousands of kilometers.\nThat effect is sudden and brief as the meteor makes the trail and the\ntrail fades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

June solstice is\non the 21st<\/sup>. Solstice time is at 14:58 UT. The sun will be\nabove the Tropic of Cancer, so named because Cancer is the\nconstellation the sun used to be in at solstice around 22 centuries\nago. These days, it’s almost at the feet of Gemini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercury is at perihelion on the 27th<\/sup>. It’s 0.307 astronomical units from the sun. In a few more days, it will be at superior conjunction\u2014on the other side of the sun on July 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simulated views of what you might see this month are below. Use a planetarium program such as Stellarium to simulate views from your location at any given time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As May ended, Mercury had just been at greatest elongation and began its retreat from the morning sky. It won’t be at superior conjunction until July 1, so most sky watchers have about the first half of this month to try to spot it. The messenger planet is predicted to be at dichotomy\u2014its semi-circle phass–on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-62"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":935,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919\/revisions\/935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}