You will need a small microscope to see Neptune and binoculars to see Uranus, but a rare panorama of planets will beautify our skies this summer.
The interesting planetary slow dance before sunrise continues in June.
At 0430, earlier this month, Venus will be in ESE, about 6 degrees above the horizon; Mars and nearby Jupiter are about 15 degrees high, and Saturn is about 20 degrees, aligned at an angle of about 30 degrees to the horizon west (right) of the sun. By the end of the month, Jupiter will move west and about 30 degrees above the SE horizon, and Saturn about 26 degrees above the southern horizon. This line of planets is quite close to the ecliptic, the path we see the sun go through the sky as we orbit it. Although most planetary orbits are slightly inclined to the ecliptic, they remain quite close to the plane of our orbit.
The ability to see four visible planets in a line is impressive, but what I find even more impressive is that with a pair of binoculars you can also find Uranus about 40 percent of the way from Venus to Mars. With a small telescope you can also see Neptune about 30% of the way from Jupiter to Saturn. Uranium is just below the naked eye in mag. 6.6, and Neptune is only about 8.2 weaker. So, this is almost every planet in the solar system since Pluto was voted off the island a few years ago. The only one missing is Mercury, which went through a lower conjunction – between us and the sun – on May 21. Wait until mid-June, however, and Mercury will begin to appear above the morning horizon just north of the east, bottom and left of Venus. Although the two outermost planets, Uranus and Neptune, are in line, they are not in line to the right of Saturn. The planets with the naked eye, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, the innermost to the outermost, are in the range from lower left to upper right and they will all move in almost the same ecliptic line during the month. . I can’t remember the last time we had such a panorama of planets in the sky.
Just to be clear, a waning moon will pass below (south) of Saturn on June 18, Jupiter and Mars on June 21 and 22, respectively, and just north (above) Venus and Mercury on June 26 and 27, respectively. Of course, this will be a difficult action unless another comet approaches or Betelgeuse becomes a supernova or similar.
For those who are not particularly excited about getting up in the dark at 30 to watch the planets rise, there is more and more to see in our clear evening sky. As the solstice approaches, several important landmarks appear in Southeast Europe. At 22:30 on June 1, Ursa Major will be high to the west with the star at the end of the handle, Alkaid, almost directly overhead. Starting from the connection to the bowl, follow the arc of the stars on the handle through Alkaid about twice the length of the handle to another bright star high to the south, Arcturus. Remember the “rainbow to Arcturus”. It is the brightest star in Bootes, about 37 light-years and about 10 percent more massive than our sun. However, it is believed to be 5 to 7 billion years old and has expanded to become a red giant about 25 times the diameter of the sun. If the helium in its nucleus has not yet ignited – the helium flash – to merge into carbon, etc., this is very close. This is a preliminary overview of what will happen to our sun in another 2 to 3 billion years.
From Arcturus, continue along the same arc again to the next bright star, Spica, the brightest star in Virgo. Remember “switch to Spike”. Spica is about 250 light years old and is quite different from Arcturus. For starters, this is a binary system consisting of two young hot B-type stars with about 11 and 7 solar masses, respectively. They are so close to each other, their orbital period is about four days and the stars are ovoid. Since the primary appears to be large enough to emerge as a supernova in about a few million years, this system is likely to be a very interesting place to observe. From a safe distance, that is – maybe 250 light years is correct.
From Arcturus some of our best summer views with the naked eye are easily found with binoculars. Spica is the neighborhood of many, many deep sky objects, some of which are also good for binoculars. These will be the starting points for the topics of the heavenly travelogue for next month.
For information on the next astronomy club meeting – Zoom or in person – on June 10, please see the club’s website at: Charles Ennis will be a speaker at the World Asterisms Project.
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