The Sky Above You – June 2021

By theorkneynews on June 1, 2021 • ( 2 Comments )

By Duncan Lunan

The Moon will be New on June 10^th, at its furthest from the Earth, and there will be an annular solar eclipse, with the rim of the Sun visible around the lunar disc, seen from northern Canada, the North Pole and eastern Siberia. Seen from Edinburgh, 41% of the Sun will be obscured in a partial solar eclipse, peaking at 11.16 a.m.. The Moon will be Full on June 24^th, three days after the summer solstice, and this will be a ‘supermoon’, when the Moon is Full at its nearest to Earth.

The planet Mercury is not visible this month, at inferior conjunction on this side of the Sun on the 11^th.

Venus sets at 11 p.m. (BST) in June, passing Castor and Pollux in Gemini on the 22^nd, and passed by the new crescent Moon on the 12^th.

Venus is also moving towards Mars, which is near Castor and Pollux early in the month and moves from Gemini into Cancer, passed by the Moon on the 13^th. Between the 22^ndand 24^th, Mars will pass in front of the Open Cluster Praesepe in Cancer, low in the evening sky.

Jupiter in Aquarius rises at 0.30 a.m., with the waning Moon nearby on the 1^st and 2^nd, with Saturn to upper right of them, and the Moon is between them on the 28^th, still closer to Jupiter the following night. On the 21^st Jupiter reaches its ‘stationary point’, after which it will appear to move westward against the stars from night to night as it’s overtaken by the Earth. Io, the innermost of the four large Galilean moons, will transit the face of Jupiter on June 28^th, preceded by its shadow, and both will be visible along with the Great Red Spot around 2.30 a.m..

Saturn in Capricornus rises at midnight (11 p.m. by the end of the month), and is also passed by the Moon on the 3^rd and the 27^th.

Uranus inAriesis not visible, after conjunction on the far side of the Sun on April 30^th, but is passed by the Moon on the 7^th.

Neptune rises between Aquarius and Pisces around 1.30 a.m., passed by the Moon on June 3^rdand 30^th. By the end of June, Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune are all appearing to move retrograde (westward) as the Earth overtakes them in its orbit, before our closest to them later in the year.

As usual, it will never be completely dark during June, as the Sun never gets far below the horizon. It’s a good time to see noctilucent (night-glowing) clouds in the north, lit by sunlight at high altitudes, first reported in the 19^th century and still not fully explained.

^.Duncan Lunan’s space travel stories, old and new, are available from Other Side Books as From the Moon to the Stars, relating to the Moon and Project Apollo, and The Other Side of the Interface, with a wider scope. Both have illustrations by Sydney Jordan, and are available through Amazon or through bookshops. For details and for his other books see his website, www.duncanlunan.com.