Society News and Night Sky Notes – June 2000 | Liverpool Astronomical Society

Society News Headlines

June 1st: Look out for Noctilucent Clouds in the North after dark.
June 1st: Saturn is 3° North of Moon.
June 1st: Jupiter is 4° North of Moon.
June 1st: Comet West-Kohoutek-Ikemura at Perihelion (1.596AU).
June 1st: Pluto at opposition.
June 3rd: Moon at Perigee.
June 4th: LAS Pex Hill Observatory Open Day 1pm – 5pm.
June 4th: Mercury 4° North of Moon.
June 4th: Vesta is stationary.
June 9th: Mercury at greatest elongation – 24° East, (evening sky).
June 11th: Venus at Superior conjunction.
June 18th: Moon at apogee.
June 19th: Vesta at 0.04° North of Moon.
June 20th: Neptune 1.3° North of Moon.
June 20th: Ophiuchids meteor shower max- best seen in Southern skies.
June 21st: Summer Solstice at 02:36 BST.
June 21st: Comet D/1984 W1 (Shoemaker II) at Perihelion (1.319AU).
June 21st: Uranus is 1.6° North of Moon.
June 22nd: 325th Birthday of The Royal Greenwich Observatory founded in 1675.
June 22nd: Mercury stationary.
June 23rd: Comet 33P/Daniel at perihelion (2.157AU)
June 23rd: Juno stationary.
June 26th: Happy Birthday Charles Messier, Born 1730 , 270 years old to-day!.
June 28th: Saturn 3° North of Moon.
June 29th: Jupiter 4° North of Moon.

THE NIGHT SKY DURING THE MONTH OF JUNE 2000

Will it be cloudy to-night?, ask the The U.K. Goverment Met Office Weather service. To make your own star chart fo your location at any time, Click Here.

The Sun and Moon

All times are in BRITISH SUMMER TIME (BST). Times For Observer in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, U.K.

Please note change to BST

Latitude 53 degs 24 mins North.
Longitude +3.0 degs West.

           May 31st     June 5th     10th       15th       20th        25th          30th
SUNRISE    04:51        04:47       04:44      04:43      04:43       04:44         04:47
SUNSET     21:29        21:34       21:39      21:42      21:44       21:45         21:44

The SUMMER SOLSTICE occurs on the 21st at 02:36 BST, the longest day of the year, and when the Sun will be at its highest point in the sky this year. The Sun lies in the constellations of Taurus/Gemini. Solstice is latin word literal meaning “Sun standstill”.

PHASES OF THE MOON DURING JUNE 2000
NEW MOON on 2nd at 13h:15m	FIRST QUARTER on 9th at 04h:30m	FULL MOON on 16th at 23h:28m	LAST QUARTER on 25th at 02h:01m

THE PLANETS THIS MONTH.

MERCURY.

Mercury is at its greatest Eastern elongation for this apparition, (See This Table), at an angle of 24° on the 9th and finishes off the evening apparition it started last month. See May’s Page for details. On the 4th the Moon passes 3.5° South of Mercury in the early hours of the morning.

VENUS.

Venus, at superior conjunction on the 11th, lies directly behind the Sun as seen from the Earth.

MARS.

Mars is not on view this month.

MARSWATCH – latest observations of the red planet.

ASTEROIDS.

Vesta 0.04° North of Moon on 19th and stationary on 4th.
Juno stationary on 23rd

For More information on Asteroids Click Here.

JUPITER.

Jupiter is now a morning object in the constellation of Taurus but will rise only one hour before the Sun does. From the 24th follow the Moon as it becomes a thin crescent and heads towards the Sun On the morning of 29th, Jupiter will be 5° above the Moon.

Launched in October 1989, the Galileo Jupiter Probe entered orbit around the great planet on December 7th 1995. The Project Galileo Homepage will give you up-to-date information and the very latest images returned.

SATURN.

Saturn can be close to Jupiter in the morning sky, with Jupiter the brightest of the two. Look at the close groupings of Moon, Jupiter and Saturn around the 28th of the month.

URANUS and NEPTUNE.

Both planets rise before midnight by the end of the month so those patient enough to wait up until the early hours will be amongst the first to get a glimpse of these two planets. Even if you cannot see them directly a few long exposure photographs of the region using a 135mm lens will reveal them when the photo is compared with a good star atlas which shows faint stars.

Positions for the 1st June
                         R.A.                   DEC                    TRANSIT TIME           MAG
                      21h:33m:44s           -15°:13':43"                   05h:06m             5.8

Neptune will be at opposition in July and is best seen during the summer months.

Positions for the 1st June:
                         R.A.                   DEC                    TRANSIT TIME           MAG
                      20h:35m:31s           -18°:27':07"                   05h:07m             7.9

PLUTO.

Pluto can be found in Ophiuchus, roughly between the 4th magnitude stars zeta and 20 Ophiuchi. The best time to look for the planet is around New Moon. The dates below will be a guide for planning observations.

Positions for June are when pluto's elongation angle is greater than 90°.

DATE                      R.A.                   DEC                   TRANSIT TIME
June  9th              16h:45m:26s            -10°:56':34"                 00h:43m             
June 19th              16h:44m:23s            -10°:56':15"                 00h:02m
June 30th              16h:43m:23s            -10°:56':40"                 23h:22m

Pluto is best seen between May 26th – June 9th and June 25th – July 8th.

METEORS.

June 10th Ophiuchids I (10 per hour) Favourable. MOON 8 days old.
June 20th Ophiuchids II(10 per hour) Unfavourable. MOON 18 days old.

COMETS.

June 1st: Comet West-Kohoutek-Ikemura at Perihelion (1.596AU).
June 21st: Comet Shoemaker II at Perihelion (1.319AU).
June 23rd: Comet Daniel at Perihelion (2.157AU).

Plus these pages will give daily and weekly reports of this and other Comets progress.

OCCULTATIONS.

June 9th at 00h:46m:20m Disappearance of SAO 118735 in Sagittarius Mag 5.8