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We haven’t posted any news roundups for a few weeks, so this is a bumper crop. Thanks to everyone who’s been sending things in!
If you have any astronomy, space or science news items you think should be included in the next Roundup, please send them to us by clicking here!
Once again the Liverpool Astronomical Society, for the 4th year, will be running our very popular Young Astronomers Club at Pex Hill Leighton Observatory. The club is aimed at 10-15 years olds but younger or older budding astronomers are welcome too. All youngsters must be accompanied at all times by parents or guardians. The sessions will be between October 2013 and March 2014. Start time 7pm until 8:30pm.
NOTE: Members are always welcome to use the observatory any time, arrange with Brendan Martin, Observatory Director. Dates are below (all activity subject to change and the weather);
This is the second in our series of Monthly Galleries. For more information about these galleries, and why we’ve chosen some of the images, please see this page.
There are some stunning images in this month’s collection, from aurora to deep-sky, noctilucent clouds, lunar and solar observations, plus others.
A huge thank you to all the contributors!
We highly recommend that you view the slideshow below in full-screen mode (the four arrows pointing away from each other). To pause the slideshow, see information about the image, or to move back-and-forth between images, hover over the image and menus will appear.
If you would prefer to see a list of the images rather than a slideshow, please click here.
If you’d like to submit an image for the next Monthly Gallery, please get in touch with us.
If you’re already a member of flickr you can add it to the group: Liverpool Astro Society’s Favourite Astro/Space Related Images
If you don’t use flickr, you can always send your images to us and we’ll upload them for you.
To do this, contact our website team (alternatively you can find us on Twitter @LiverpoolAS) and we’ll make arrangements for you to send us the images.
If you don’t have a digital version of your photo(s), that’s no problem! Just bring it/them along to a meeting, with a note which includes your name and a contact address/number (so we can arrange to return it), and any information about the image(s) such as what the title of the photo(s) should be, what the subject of the photo is (include Messier and NGC numbers if known and where appropriate), where and when it/they were taken, focal length, type of camera and film, filters used, etc. – there’s no such thing as too much information. Please make sure your writing is clear.
Please note that whether your images are digital or film, you always retain all credit and copyright for them, and these will be displayed in the photo information.
What’s visible in the sky above Liverpool in June 2013?
Map is valid for:
1st June 2013 at 00:00 BST
15th June 2013 at 23:00 BST
30th June 2013 at 22:00 BST
| 31st May 2013 | 5th June 2013 | 10th June 2013 | 15th June 2013 | 20th June 2013 | 25th June 2013 | 30th June 2013 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 04:51 BST | 04:47 BST | 04:44 BST | 04:43 BST | 04:43 BST | 04:45 BST | 04:47 BST |
| Sunset | 21:29 BST | 21:35 BST | 21:39 BST | 21:42 BST | 21:44 BST | 21:45 BST | 21:44 BST |
Summer Solstice occurs on Friday, 21st June 2013 at 06:04 BST (05:04 UTC) when the Sun’s apparent Northerly motion in the sky reaches a standstill in Gemini. This is the longest day of the year, and marks the start of Summer in the Northern Hemisphere. After this point, the days start getting shorter and the Sun begins to sink back to the South until the Winter Solstice in December.
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Last Quarter | New Moon | First Quarter | Full Moon | Last Quarter | |
| Date | 31st May 2013 | 8th June 2013 | 16th June 2013 | 23rd June 2013 | 30th June 2013 |
| Time | 19:59 BST | 16:57 BST | 18:24 BST | 12:33 BST | 05:54 BST |
The Moon reaches Perigee – the closest point in its orbit to us – on 24th June. This particular Perigee is the closest of 2013, with the Moon’s distance being 355,439km – this is less than 21 times the distance from Liverpool, UK to Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Click here to learn more about lunar Perigee and Apogee.
| Mercury | Venus | Moon | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Time (BST) | ALTITUDE ° | AZIMUTH ° | ALTITUDE ° | AZIMUTH ° | ALTITUDE ° | AZIMUTH ° |
| June 5th 2013 | 21:25 BST | 7.0° | 303° | 3.7° | 307° | ||
| June 10th 2013 | 21:30 BST | 6.2° | 303° | 3.8° | 307° | ||
| June 11th 2013 | 21:31 BST | 6.2° | 302° | 4.0° | 306° | 4.6° | 290° |
| June 12th 2013 | 21:32 BST | 5.8° | 302° | 4.0° | 306° | 8.5° | 280° |
| June 15th 2013 | 21:34 BST | 4.5° | 303° | 3.8° | 306° | ||
| June 20th 2013 | 21:36 BST | 2.0° | 304° | 3.7° | 305° | ||
Mercury starts the month relatively high in the sky – in fact, higher than Venus – peaking on about June 7th. Its position in the sky is much the same as last month, so the charts given in May 2013’s “What’s Visible?” can be used as a guide along with the more precise table above this paragraph.
Venus spends most of the month lower in the sky than Mercury, not overtaking it until 21st June when the two planets have a conjunction. Unfortunately they will be quite low in the sky (see table above) and close to the Sun, and this event will be difficult to observe.
Mars is still lost in the morning twilight during June 2013, and observing it will be quite difficult
Jupiter reaches Solar Conjunction on 19th June and so cannot be observed this month.
Saturn passed Opposition on April 28th, however it is still very well placed for observing. Look for it quite high in the South at about 22:00 BST.
Neptune is slowly becoming a viable object for observing again, rising at about 01:02 BST by the 15th June 2013. The planet reaches Opposition in August 2013.
The general location in the sky of Neptune on 15th June 2013 at 02:00 BST
The precise location in the sky of Neptune on 15th June 2013 at 02:00 BST
Near Earth Asteroid 1998 QE2 made its closest approach to Earth on May 31st, and while not a particularly bright object for visual observation at a predicted magnitude of 10.5 to 11, it is of interest to those making radar observations, such as NASA.
Comet ISON spends June within the orbit of Jupiter and outside the orbit of Mars, as it approaches the inner Solar System. It is still extremely faint, and is expected to be so for some time yet.
Comet C/2011 L4 (Pan-STARRS) begins the month about 6° from Polaris, and during June crosses Ursa Minor and passes into Draco, reducing in (predicted) brightness from about magnitude 9.5 to almost magnitude 11 as it goes.
On 19th June 2013 Comet Pan-STARRS will pass within a degree of the star Kocab (β-Ursae Minoris).
Comet C/2012 F6 (Lemmon) is very faint now, although much higher in the sky now than it was during May. Between about the 11th and 12th of June, it passes within 5° of M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy).
| Name of Shower | Date of Peak | Favourability | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ophiuchids | 10th June 2013 | Favourable (Close to New Moon) |
First peak. Expected rates of ~5 meteors/hour. |
| 20th June 2013 | Unfavourable (Close to Full Moon) |
Second peak. Expected rates of ~5 meteors/hour. |
The UK’s first official astronaut is chosen; Zombie Comets from Interplanetary Space; Priceless samples of the Moon rediscovered after being misplaced over 40 years ago; and more…
If you have any astronomy, space or science news items you think should be included in the next Roundup, please send them to us by clicking here!
This is just a quick post to let you know that the main menu has been slightly re-organised.
Some items which were previously at the ‘top’ level of the menu are now in sub-levels, specifically the index of content from the pre-2004 LAS website which can now be found as a sub-menu of the “All Articles” menu, and various other menu items which are now under the “News & Resources” top-level menu (formerly called just “News”).
Remember, all menu items are clickable, even those with sub-menus.
Also, don’t forget that you can find articles on specific topics by using the Articles & Categories box (found on the right of the homepage, unless you are on a small screen/mobile device, in which case it is below the homepage content) – the same applies to the expandable Categories as to the menus, i.e. parent categories are also clickable and may yield more articles than the sum of those in its sub-categories.
In addition, we recently added the Related posts section at the end of each article.
If you are unable to find the article(s) which you are looking for, there is also the Search box above the main menu.
If you find an article on our site which you think should be in particular categories, or should be tagged with particular keywords, do please let us know in the comments for that article so that we can improve your use of our website.
Regards,
Mark G.
We’ve added a new item, Weather Resources, to the website, which we hope you will find of interest.
It is located under the “News & Resources” menu item (formerly just “News”).
On our weather pages you can find a selection of the latest images in various wavelengths from Eumetsat’s geostationary Meteosat satellite series, as well as 7Timer!‘s Astro and Meteo forecasts for the Liverpool area.
We hope to bring animated weather satellite images to you in the near future, to further aid in planning your observations.
A tantalising taste of Titanian topography; the Southern Hemisphere’s only dedicated professional comet-hunting telescope may be forced to shut down; and a Near Earth Asteroid provides opportunities for the press to make tenuous statements about ocean liners and the Royal Family.
If you have any astronomy, space or science news items you think should be included in the next Roundup, please send them to us by clicking here!
You may be interested in this week’s edition of the BBC radio programme “In Our Time“, hosted by Melvyn Bragg, which deals with the topic of Cosmic Rays.
From the BBC iPlayer site:
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss cosmic rays. In 1912 the physicist Victor Hess discovered that the Earth is under constant bombardment from radiation coming from outside our atmosphere. These so-called cosmic rays have been known to cause damage to satellites and electronic devices on Earth, but most are absorbed by our atmosphere. The study of cosmic rays and their effects has led to major breakthroughs in particle physics. But today physicists are still trying to establish where these highly energetic subatomic particles come from.
With:
Carolin Crawford Gresham Professor of Astronomy and a member of the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge
Alan Watson Emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Leeds
Tim Greenshaw Professor of Physics at the University of Liverpool.
The programme is available via iPlayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01sdnkg/In_Our_Time_Cosmic_Rays/ and is not subject to the normal 7-day removal rule, so should be available whenever you read this post. It is also available as a podcast from the various podcast sources (e.g. iTunes).