Jupiter, the Moon, and the stars Arcturus and Spica are all in the same region of the southern sky at 10:30 PM on June 20th.
Jupiter the Moon, and the stars Arcturus and Spica in the southern sky at 10:30 PM on June 20th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Saturn is low in the southeastern sky, and Jupiter is high in the southern sky after sunset.
Saturn in the southeastern sky at 10:30 PM, June 20, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Mars shines bright red in the southern sky early in the morning; Saturn is a bit lower in the sky, and towards the southwest.
Mars and Saturn in the southern sky at 3:30 AM, June 21, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.A waxing crescent Moon joins Venus in the western sky at sunset. Mercury also makes an appearance low in the western sky – a brief few moments before sunset.
Moon, Venus and Mercury in the sky at 9:30 PM, June 19, 2018. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.Mercury will continue to brighten as it climbs towards Venus until July 1st, after which it will start to descend towards the horizon, vanishing around end of July.
The Moon
The Moon from June 5-11, 2018. Visualizations by Ernie WrightThe Moon is a waxing crescent and will be at first quarter on June 20th; the Moon will then be a waxing gibbous. This will be a great week for observing the Moon near sunset!
Observing Target: M13 – The Great Cluster in Hercules
M13 is a globular cluster in the constellation Hercules, and probably the 2nd object I pointed my 8 inch Dobsonian telescope at.
In small telescopes, M13 appears like a nebulous puff-ball – almost like a comet. In medium to large-sized telescopes, hundreds of stars become distinct, some looking like diamonds. Space telescope images of the M13 reveal hundreds of thousands of stars; M13 really is quite a stunning sight.
Time-lapse simulation of a globular star cluster over several hundreds of thousands of years:
Animation of a globular cluster in 3D:
The Sun
AR2713 is a small sunspot group near the equator of the Sun; the spot is very small, and hard to spot on HMI images. However it’s easy to see the active region at the frequencies shown in the videos below – there is a lot of coronal loop activity associated with this sunspot.
Coronal holes have reopened at both poles; SpaceWeather.com says: “Earth is moving deeper into a stream of solar wind that arrived during the early hours of June 18th. This is causing the solar wind near our planet to quicken, blowing faster than 500 km/s (1.1 million mph). High latitude sky watchers should remain alert for auroras, especially in the southern hemisphere where winter darkness favors visibility.” The solar wind speed is 488.6 km/sec, with a density of 12.3 protons/cm3 – that’s the highest particle density I’ve seen!
As has been the norm for the last few weeks, several small short-lived prominences have been appearing on the Sun’s limb over the past couple days; AR2713 is the bright orange region in the video below:
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
Asteroids
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2018 KC3 |
2018-Jun-19
|
14.6 LD
|
8.8
|
87
|
| 2018 LA6 |
2018-Jun-19
|
10.2 LD
|
11
|
16
|
| 2018 MK |
2018-Jun-20
|
7.5 LD
|
17.1
|
53
|
| 2018 MA |
2018-Jun-21
|
19.2 LD
|
16.6
|
49
|
| 2018 LX5 |
2018-Jun-21
|
5.2 LD
|
11.7
|
31
|
| 2018 LS5 |
2018-Jun-21
|
6.5 LD
|
9
|
16
|
| 2017 YE5 |
2018-Jun-21
|
15.6 LD
|
15.5
|
513
|
| 467309 |
2018-Jun-23
|
17.9 LD
|
14
|
355
|
| 441987 |
2018-Jun-24
|
7.3 LD
|
12.6
|
178
|
| 2018 LD3 |
2018-Jun-24
|
19.9 LD
|
14.2
|
69
|
| 2018 LN2 |
2018-Jun-28
|
10.5 LD
|
9.4
|
88
|
| 2018 LR3 |
2018-Jun-29
|
6 LD
|
3.8
|
19
|
| 2018 LT6 |
2018-Jul-01
|
11.6 LD
|
13
|
126
|
| 2018 LJ1 |
2018-Jul-01
|
13.9 LD
|
2.7
|
18
|
Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) discovered this month: 70, this year: 828, all time: 18378.
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 1912 (as of June 19, 2018)
Minor Planets discovered: 779,736 (as of June 19, 2018)
Fireballs
On June 19, 2018, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 19 fireballs.
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point–Earth. Source: Spaceweather.comThe Solar System
This is the position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the solar system:
Position of the planets in the inner solar system, June 19, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, June 19, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.
Alternate view of the planets in the Inner solar system, June 19, 2018. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.Exoplanets
Confirmed Exoplanets: 3,735 (5/31/2018)
Multi-Planet Systems: 614 (5/31/2018)
Kepler Candidate Exoplanets: 4,496 (8/31/2017)
TESS Candidate Exoplanets: 0
Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive
Exoplanet of the Week: WASP-12 B
Exoplanet WASP-12 B. Credit: NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley.Apps used for this post:
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It’s a great tool for planning observing sessions.
NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator – free for the PC /MAC. I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
