What's in the night sky in the week of 12 to 18 June, 2023 in our weekly stargazing guide. This week's highlights include the earliest sunrise of the year and Venus clips the top of the Beehive Cluster.
Chris Bramley Hello and welcome to Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine. You can subscribe to the print edition of the magazine by visiting www.skyatnightmagazine.com or digital edition by visiting on iTunes or Google Play.
Ezzy Pearson Greetings, listeners, and welcome to Star Diary, a weekly guide to the best things to see in the northern hemisphere's night sky. In this episode, we'll be covering the coming week from 12 to 18 June. I'm Ezzy Pearson, the magazine's features editor, and I'm joined on the podcast today by reviews editor Paul Money. Hello, Paul.
Paul Money Now then Ezzy. A few more things to look out for this week.
Ezzy Oh, what do we have coming up for us?
Paul Well, we're still keeping an eye on the evening sky for our favourite pair of planets, Mars and Venus, that seem to have been there forever, don't they? But the good news is, we mentioned last week that they straddled the Beehive Cluster. Now that it's getting harder against the light background sky isn't it. We're heading... we're nearly at the summer solstice, so it's very, very light skies. But if you keep watching around about 10:30, because they're still reasonably well above the horizon, Venus creeps ever closer to the Beehive. And on 13th it clips the northern edge of the Beehive Cluster, the sort of the fainter outer layers as such, whilst Mars lies off to the left of both of them. Venus is trying to catch up with Mars. But the latter stubbornly keeps ahead of the brighter planet. It's determined to be playing tag but its not playing tag. "I'm not going to let you catch up with me." But that would be a nice photographic view. Hopefully people photographed Mars when it was in the Beehive. And so now they've got a chance to catch Venus just clipping the top edge. So that's on 13 June. Well, worth having a look out for. And let's hope we have some clear skies for it, and it's in the evening sky. Nice and convenient, isn't it? Now, you would say the next bit isn't convenient unless you like getting up. 3AM. in the morning. This is the next morning. June 14, the early morning. You've got a lovely crescent moon. I love crescent moons. In fact, I was explaining to somebody on social media the other day because I'd put up a picture and they'd put their picture up. They were an amateur astronomer... They weren't even an amateur astronomer. They were just a general public. And they put a picture and said, I don't understand it. Why is the other side of the Moon lit up as well? So of course, that helped me lead into an explanation of the Earthshine on the Moon. And when you've got a nice crescent like this, you know it's well worth. You'll see the earthshine, which is the light bounced off the Earth back onto me. I always think of it as like, fill in flash with photographers sort of thing, because it's almost the same sort of effect. The light is being redirected back onto the night side of the Moon. But we've got the added bonus. The Moon is really close to Jupiter as well, so they rise to the right about just before 3 a.m. over in the east northeast. Well worth having a look out for them. And then of course, you do need an uncluttered horizon Ezzy. That's probably usually why I can't see it because I haven't got an uncluttered east northeast horizon, unfortunately. Not to forget that the morning sky at the moment also has other planets. Two of the other giant planets, Saturn and Neptune. Saturn's in Aquarius. At the moment, Neptune has crept over and is actually in Pisces, so. Well worth having a look for them. They're roughly over in the east south east to the southeast. So and of course, if you've got a telescope, have a look at Saturn. If you've got a small telescope, you might just pick out Titan going around Saturn. It'll be a little tiny dot of light moving either side of the planet itself. And of course, if you got a larger telescope, even I would look at the rings as well. It's one of those if show somebody for the first time Saturn, it's almost... You can see the look on the faces of utter wonderment I mean, I had somebody said to me, it really has got rings.
Ezzy It is. Any time we ask, you know, sort of people, what was the first thing you remember looking at the telescope and thinking, Wow, the rings of Saturn always come top. Always, always. Sometimes it's people say things like Jupiter's Great Red Spot or, you know, a particularly distant galaxy or something like that, But you can't really beat Saturn's rings.
Paul No, you can't, Saturn's rings. I must admit, the view of the really good craters on the Moon. Again, if it's one of if it's their first view through a telescope and the Moon's up and nothing else in show in the moon, and they just gasp because they can't believe the amount of detail you've got on it. So I think, of course, we've got the Moon. And funnily enough that leads into the next bit because I mentioned the moon and Jupiter. Now we do mention that you can see these things sometimes in daylight. So you've got to be very careful. Obviously, we don't want to look too close to the Sun, but if you watched the Moon next to Jupiter, or close to Jupiter, and sort of like around about 3AM. as they rose, if you follow that into daylight, the moon creeps above and passes above Jupiter. So about 6AM. you've actually got them. Jupiter just below the Moon. So that will make a nice photograph sort of thing for those who've got a telescope. Well worth having a look at that. And visually, I mean, it's quite something to see the Moon in daylight. And I've been photographing the Moon fairly recently in daylight deliberately to show it can be seen in daylight. The amount of people who are stunned when you say and you can see. "Hang on, I can see the moon in daylight, what's happening?" And then you then it leads you into explaining about the phases of the Moon. And the Moon goes around us and there will be times it's visible in daytime. So but it can be seen for quite a run of days. In actual fact, in daytime, if you're careful. And in this particular case in the morning sky, say we've got Jupiter and being a bright planet. This was... Jupiter and Venus, are the two that will stand out the most against a bright background sky. So well worth having a look. And that's on the 14th. But 6AM. onwards. But after that, Moon will slowly drift further away from Jupiter. So it's roughly at its closest around about 6AM. So something different to look for. But just as we always say, be very careful you don't move off from that, off to the left, basically, and you've got the sun. So be very, very careful of such. Actually, we mentioned the Sun Ezzy. For those of us who've got solar telescopes and specialised equipment, the sun has been really, really, really active.
Ezzy Absolutely.
Paul So if you've got a hydrogen alpha telescope or any of these other specialised telescopes. Even a proper safe white light filter. There's been huge numbers of spots on the Sun, so well worth keeping an eye on the sun if you got the right equipment to look at it safely.
Ezzy That's right. Well, the sun is absolutely fantastic at the moment and in fact we have an article coming up in our July issue, which is all about how to look at the Sun safely in white light. So if anybody out there is interested in getting a better look at the Sun at the moment, do keep an eye out for that article in the July issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine. And of course, subscribe for all of our great content delivered straight to your door.
Paul Exactly. So let's get back to the night sky then, because the night sky, that's where it was. Astronomers really thrived don't we. But, you know, June 16. Now, this is a faint one, but it's always great to tick off another minor world, you know, and your little list of sort of minor worlds of the Solar System you've actually observed. And in this particular case, minor planet 20 Massalia is at opposition. It's magnitude +10.0, which when you consider that supernova, we're talking about magnitude +11 at his brightest, magnitude +10.0 is pretty good. The minor world does lie Ophiucus, so it is quite low. That's seen midnight to 2am whilst the sky is... I was going to say "at its darkest" We are, you know, literally less than a week away from the summer solstice. So the sky will be light. But that period – midnight to 2am – is about the best time for the darkest part of the summer sky. But well, with ticking that off sort of thing, if you want another asteroid. You do need a good chart. And of course you got one in the Sky at Night magazine sort of thing for the June issue. So, you know, if you've got that issue, you'll be able to find that. And so, well worth... A lot of this software, you know, you find apps on your phone and things like that, will actually show these minor worlds as well. You often have to dig into the settings sometimes to make sure they're visible and the brightness sort of thing. Because if you keep the brightness, the magnitude limitation down, it won't show it. But you put that all but don't put it too high because there are tens of thousands of asteroids and minor planets and the screen suddenly goes filled.
Ezzy You do you do need to... There is lots of things out there. The universe is quite large. Famously quite big. So you do need to be careful that you're not overwhelming yourself.
Paul We finish really sort of thing with the... And it's a bit of an oddity because it depends on whether you like watching sunrises. And again you have to do this very, very carefully of course. But June 17th, it marks the earliest sunrise of the year it doesn't quite coincide, it's one of those little myths that the earliest sunrises always on the summer solstice. That isn't the case. It's a little quirk sort of thing of the way our things work in the Universe. And so the earliest sunrise is at 4:38 BST sort of thing. So 4:30AM, although the difference, to be quite frank, is mere seconds between them. So for all intents and purposes, nearly all week you can see around about 4:38 all week it barely changes as we head towards the summer solstice next week. But technically June 17 is the earliest. So if you one of those that like to catch things sort of thing at the very at the very moment when they occur, then June 17. If you can watch the sunrise, I mean I'd go if I had a chance I'd go down to Stonehenge and it wouldn't be quite in the right time sort of thing for seeing it rise between the whichever stones they are at Stonehenge. But 17th is the earliest technically, so well worth having a look for that just in case. So there we are. A range of things to look out for. And, you know, it's well worth keeping your eye out because we never know what's going to happen. We never know with the maybe another supernova. In fact that week that the supernova was discovered that we mentioned the other week in the Pinwheel Galaxy, there were two other supernova in galaxies as well. Slightly fainter. I haven't seen them, haven't imaged them and we're into the light nights now. But this is the thing about astronomy, isn't it. Something can happen. We can have an outburst from a comet. A new nova could be discovered. Things like that. We could have a display of Noctilucent Clouds or even very rarely like does happen – the aurora. The aurora borealis. I've seen that in July. So very rare. Only twice in my lifetime that I've ever seen that. But you never know. So there we are. Always keep a look on the sky. You never know what you'll see.
Ezzy Yes. Astronomy is this very strange mixture of these things that we can predict 2,000 years in advance. And then there's something that will come along and we've got no idea it's about to happen and everybody will rush to go and see it. So that's one of the reasons why I really like, you know, space observing and everything like that, because you never quite sure what's going to happen. But thank you very much, Paul, for taking us through that week's stargazing highlights. And to just summarise those again, Mars and Venus continue to get closer and on 13 June, Venus just clips the top of the Beehive Cluster. Then on the morning of 14th we've got quite a lot going on with the planets. The crescent moon and Jupiter are going to be close to the horizon and close to each other at about 3AM. You can also see Saturn and Neptune in that early morning sky and possibly even at 6AM. you might catch the Moon and Jupiter in the daylight sky close together. 16th June is a great chance to see the minor planets Massalia. There you will need to get a chart to be able to find it. And on 17 June, it's the earliest sunrise of the year, though it's pretty much about the same time all throughout the week. But it does mean it's a great time to do some solar observing as well. The Sun is extremely active at the moment, so definitely if you've got some solar equipments to be able to do it, get out and do that safely.
And if you want to keep up to date with the best things to see in the night sky every week, do be sure to subscribe to the podcast and we hope to see you here next week if you want to find out even more spectacular sites that will be gracing the night sky this month, be sure to pick up a copy of BBC Sky at Night magazine, where we have a six page pull out sky guide with a full overview of everything worth looking up for throughout the whole month. Whether you like to look at the moon, the planets, or the deep sky, whether you use binoculars, telescopes or neither, our sky Guide has got you covered with detailed star charts to help you track your way across the night sky. From all of us here at BBC Sky Night Magazine, goodbye.
Chris Bramley Thank you for listening to this episode of Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night magazine. For more of our podcasts, visit our website at www.skyatnightmagazine.com or head to aCast, iTunes or Spotify.
