The rains of early May soon departed but sunnier days ended with hazy skies. So we’ve not seen much at all recently to be honest! Ever the optimists though, below you’ll find some interesting upcoming Astronomy Events for June where we’ve tried to list something of interest to everyone to keep you all watching the skies!

Don’t miss the special event from 5th to 6th June, there won’t be another in our lifetime!

Sunday 3rd June – The Moon is at Perigee at a distance of 358,480 km

Monday 4th June – It’s a Full Moon tonight, sometimes known as the Flower Moon, Strawberry Moon or Rose Moon

The Full Moon can look beautiful but its brightness can be a problem for astronomers, and make it awkward to photograph! (Click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Tuesday 5th into
Wednesday 6th June – Venus is at Inferior Conjunction and will transit (cross in front of) the face of the Sun. The last such transit was on 8th June 2004, but if you miss this one the next won’t be for another 105 years!

“Depending on where you live worldwide, the transit of Venus will happen on June 5 or 6, 2012. If you live in the world’s Western Hemisphere (North America, northwestern South America, Hawaii, Greenland or Iceland), the transit will start in the afternoon hours on June 5

Shown above at 04:00 UTC (05:00 GMT) at sunrise in the UK, Venus will only transit the Sun’s disc for about another 50 minutes before it’s all over for another 105 years! (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

In the world’s Eastern Hemisphere (Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia or New Zealand), the transit will first be seen at sunrise or in the morning hours on June 6″ (via EarthSky)

The next transit of Venus will be on December 11, 2117

Image of the Transit of Venus captured in 2004 – Credit: Jan Herold

Remember, observing the Sun can be dangerous if you don’t have the correct gear like a solarscope, certified solar viewing filters or a pair of eclipse viewing glasses. Don’t look directly at the Sun or you will damage your eyes and your equipment

Monday 11th June – The International Space Station (ISS) will be visible over British evening skies towards the middle of the month. Usually making a couple of visible passes during the evening, programs like Stellarium can track the orbit of the ISS and show you where and when it’s going to rise

Alternately, you can visit a site like Heavens-Above.com, enter your location using the map and it will list the time of every visible pass from your where you are over the next 10 days. Great eh!?

A long exposure shot of the ISS passing will create a bright white streak across a clear starfield background (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Saturday 16th June – The Moon is at Apogee (405,790 km) the farthest it will get from the Earth on its current orbit

Sunday 17th June - This is the time of year to be looking for noctilucent clouds, which sometimes appear low down in the northwest (after sunset) and northeast (just before sunrise)

These clouds are in the upper atmosphere and are usually too faint to see, becoming visible only when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon while the lower layers of the atmosphere are in the Earth’s shadow

Noctilucent clouds as captured over Sweden (click to enlarge) – Credit: P-M Hedén

Tuesday 19th June – New Moon which rises just before the Sun

Thursday 21st June - After sunset Mercury will be at its highest in the sky and is joined by a thin crescent Moon below to its left.   If you’ve got a low horizon just north of west, look out for “earthshine” illuminating the dark side of the Moon

Earthshine happens when light reflected from the surface of the Earth illuminates the dark side allowing us to see details (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Monday 25th June – Mars appears close to the waxing crescent Moon this evening, with Saturn following not far behind. Possibly a good opportunity for a wide angle starfield photograph while the Moon isn’t too bright to spoil a longer exposure? If it’s clear i’ll give it a go!

Look just south of west around 22:30 BST to find the waxing crescent Moon near Mars (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Thursday 28th June – The planet Mercury is in Inferior Conjunction

Friday 29th June – Moon is at Perigee (367,315 km)

Planets visible this month:

Mercury
Venus
Mars
Saturn
Jupiter
Uranus
Neptune

Remember, it can take your eyes up to 20 minutes to become properly dark adapted, and anything up to an hour for a telescope to reach ambient temperature outside (to ensure the best image), so give yourself plenty of time to get set up!

To make it easier to find this list of astronomical happenings you can also locate it in the “Monthly Guide” section in the menu bar to the right. Handy!

Guide images created with Stellarium

Archive:
Astronomy Events – May 2012
Astronomy Events – April 2012
Astronomy Events – March 2012

Follow @sky_watching

Despite a relatively good start to April, the proverbial showers soon set in and the second half of the month has been a washout under one rainstorm after another!

It can’t rain all the time though (can it!?), and with May now upon us there’s a whole new list of astronomical events coming up to cater for everyone!

Tuesday 1st May - Mercury rises before the Sun just after 04:00 UTC (05:00 BST) in the eastern sky

Thursday 3rd May – Venus is still visible after sunset over the west northwest horizon, and will gradually move closer to the setting Sun over the course of the month

Sunday 6th May – The Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks this morning with a ZHR of around 30 per hour (see below). The radiant is in the constellation Aquarius that comes up over the eastern horizon around 01:30 UTC (02:30 BST) on 6th May, but meteors could appear anywhere across the sky

Aquarid Meteor Radiant shown at 03:00 UTC (04:00 BST) on 6th May (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Tonight’s Full Moon is also at Perigee (356,955 km)

Monday 7th May – Saturn appears close to the blue giant Spica this evening, shown below to the south at 22:30 UTC (23:30 BST). At this time the Moon is also rising to the east close to the red giant Antares, which means “rival of Mars”

Saturn will be close to the blue giant Spica directly south at 22:30 UTC/23:30 BST (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Saturday 12th May – Last Quarter Moon

Sunday 13th May – Jupiter is in conjunction with the Sun, and won’t be visible all month

If you’ve got a telescope M13 is well worth a look in the early hours of 17th May (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Thursday 17th May – The Great Globular Cluster M13 in the constellation Hercules is at its highest at 01:00 UTC (02:00 BST) this morning (see above). We’ve always wanted to image this, and having had a go at lesser cluster M37 last year (below) we’re hoping it stays crystal clear this evening!

We imaged the M37 cluster in January this year, but M13 is much more impressive! (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Saturday 19th May - Moon is at Apogee (406,450 km)

Sunday 20th May – New Moon which rises and sets with the Sun, so tonight is a good time for looking at deep sky objects

Tuesday 22nd May – Venus appears just above and to the right of the waxing crescent Moon this evening, which will set about an hour and a half after the Sun

Imaging the crecent Moon and Venus can get good results, in January they were opposite to how they’ll appear on 22nd May, when they’ll also be closer! (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Wednesday 23rd May - This is the time of year to start looking for noctilucent clouds, which sometimes appear low down in the northwest (after sunset) and northeast (just before sunrise)

Noctilucent clouds as captured over Sweden (click to enlarge) – Credit: P-M Hedén

These clouds are in the upper atmosphere and are usually too faint to see, becoming visible only when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon while the lower layers of the atmosphere are in the Earth’s shadow

Sunday 27th May – Mercury is at Superior Conjunction

Monday 28th May – First Quarter Moon

The daytime First Quarter Moon from April 29th 2012 (click to enlarge) – Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Planets visible this month:

Mercury
Venus
Mars
Saturn

Remember, it can take your eyes up to 20 minutes to become properly dark adapted, and anything up to an hour for a telescope to reach ambient temperature outside (to ensure the best image), so give yourself plenty of time to get set up!

To make it easier to find this list of astronomical happenings you can also locate it in the “Monthly Guide” section in the menu bar to the right. Handy!

Guide images created with Stellarium

Archive:
Astronomy Events – April 2012
Astronomy Events – March 2012
Astronomy Events – February 2012

Follow @sky_watching

There’s a great account you can follow on Twitter if you’d like to be sent alerts whenever the ISS will be passing your location. Twisst ISS alerts send out thousands of messages every day, and right on shedule this evening the ISS began a pass over my house.

The ISS streaks across the sky near to the bright planet Venus from 17th April (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Taken using a 50mm lens on a 6 second exposure (f/2.5 ISO-200), I think enough of the stars appear cleanly without too much drifting. Venus is beautiful at the moment, and it always looks great in an image!

The ISS streak seems to "phase" as it passes behind part of a tree (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

So, 10 minutes in the cold and a nice, bright, high ISS pass later I’m back indoors with a hot cuppa.

And my Canon Eos 550D is having its batteries charged. The Lyrids meteor shower peaks soon, I think I’ll get the flask ready for a night in the cold!

If you’re on Twitter you can follow @twisst and while you’re there, why not follow us too!

And if not you’re not on Twitter yet, come and join us!

As per usual our skies were cloudy last night. I’m beginning to believe the clouds wait to roll in just before particular astral events, usually the ones I most want to see! Last night (as noted in our Astro Guide for April) the planet Venus appeared as if part of the Pleiades star cluster.

Thankfully tonight Venus hasn’t moved on all that far, and a break in the clouds just after sunset gave us the chance to get some photos!

The bright planet Venus shines next to the Pleiades cluster, and the setting Jupiter is accompanied by some of her moons (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Taken with a Canon Eos 550D using a 50mm lens (4 sec exposure, f/3.5, ISO400), virtually none of the stars you can see in the image above were visible to the naked eye!

A cropped full size view of the beautiful Pleiades next to a radiant Venus (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

This is a fullsize cropped section of the image. Yesterday Venus would have appeared lower down and closer to the lower left edge of the cluster, so they would both have appeared in the field of view if the Canon were attached to a telescope.  Another missed opportunity.

Still, the great thing about astrophotography is that there’s always something worthy of imaging, and we like the shots we got this evening.

Space is cool

March was a good month for sky watching! The conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, followed closely by the appearance of the crescent Moon sparked a lot of interest. So what is happening in April to keep that enthusiasm going?

To help out we’ve listed some astronomical happenings of note for the next month, hopefully with a little bit of something for everyone!

Sunday 1st April - Today sees the start of Global Astronomy Month, encouraging all to look to the night sky!

Tuesday 3rd April – Venus is still present as a spectacularly bright object in the early evening sky. Tonight it will appear to pass closest to the Pleiades or “Seven Sisters” (so it should be a great photographic target) but the planet will be just below the open cluster on the 2nd and to the left on the 4th, so we’ve got three evenings to get some images (hope for clear skies!)

Venus will appear in the Pleiades on the 3rd April 2012 shown at 20:00 GMT (21:00 BST). The star cluster is also known as the Seven Sisters (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Friday 6th April – The first Full Moon of spring is sometimes known as the Paschal Full Moon or the Paschal Term

Also called the Pink Moon, supposedly because the grass pink (or wild ground phlox) is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the season, other monikers (varying by location) are the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and – among coastal tribes – the Full Fish Moon, when the shad come upstream to spawn

Traditionally, Easter is observed on the Sunday immediately after the Paschal Full Moon (Paschal meaning passover)

The Paschal Full Moon fell on 17th April in 2011, imaged here using a Sky-Watcher 200P Telescope and a Canon Eos 550D (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Saturday 7th April - Moon is at Perigee (358,315 km) the closest point of its orbit to the Earth, rising soon after 20:00 GMT (21:00 BST)

Tuesday 10th April - As the Moon doesn’t rise until after 00:00 GMT (01:00 BST) tonight is a good opportunity to look at some deep sky objects earlier on without the moonlight interfering!

Friday 13th April – Last Quarter Moon which doesn’t rise until after 02:00 GMT (03:00 BST), another good evening for deep sky observing

Sunday 15th April – Saturn is at Opposition in the constellation Virgo. This means it’s in an opposite position in the sky to our Sun so will rise at sunset and set at sunrise, making it observable all night long. The rings are beginning to open too (as the planet tilts) so they will look impressive even in a small telescope

We captured this image of Saturn by using a CCD camera and then stacking the frames, from March 2011 (click to enlarge) Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Wednesday 18th April – Mercury is at its Greatest Western Elongation so will rise before the Sun and be visible to morning observers, close to the waning crescent Moon

Saturday 21st April – Tonight the New Moon sets at dusk, coinciding with the peak of the Lyrids Meteor Shower (from 16th to 26th April), which will start this evening and last into the early hours of the 22nd

The radiant point will be near the constellation Lyra with a ZHR (Zenithal Hourly Rate) of around 20 meteors per hour (but it has been known to go as high as 90)

The meteors will seem to come from the direction of Lyra, but should appear all over the sky. Image shown at 00:00 GMT (01:00 BST) on 22nd April 2012 (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Sunday 22nd April - Moon is at Apogee (406,420 km) the furthest point of its orbit from the Earth

Jupiter will appear very close to a thin crescent Moon, about 6° up in the west-north-western sky after sunset

Monday 23rd April – The waxing crescent Moon appears just beneath the Pleiades soon after sunset this evening. With the Hyades and Venus both nearby (all to the right of Orion), those with a flat enough western horizon may find this a good photo target

The large craters of Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina will appear very will illuminated close to the terminator on 26th April 2012 (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/A.Welbourn

Thursday 26th April - Fans of the Moon have the chance to see (and image) three large craters this evening. Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catharina will all appear close to the terminator, similar to the image above that we took on 9th April 2011

Sunday 29th April – First Quarter Moon

Mars, Regulus and the waxing gibbous Moon form a triangle in the sky on 30th April 21.30 GMT (22.30 BST), we'll be aiming to get some images! (click to enlarge) - Credit: Sky-Watching/Stellarium

Monday 30th April – Mars, the waxing gibbous Moon and the star Regulus (part of the constellation Leo) form a triangle in the sky this evening. Shown above at 21:30 GMT (22:30 BST), it should be a good target for some photos!

Planets visible this month:

Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn

Remember, it can take your eyes up to 20 minutes to become properly dark adapted, and anything up to an hour for a telescope to reach ambient temperature outside (to ensure the best image), so give yourself plenty of time to get set up!

To make it easier to find this list of astronomical happenings you can also locate it in the “Monthly Guide” section in the menu bar to the right. Handy!

Guide images created with Stellarium

Archive:
Astronomy Events – March 2012
Astronomy Events – February 2012
Astronomy Events – January 2012

Follow @sky_watching