The Sky This Week for June 1 to June 5
Mars is at its closest approach, but Jupiter is no slouch in the night sky this week.
Wednesday, June 1
• The conspicuous Summer Triangle asterism dominates the eastern sky in late evening. Vega, the triangle’s brightest member, shines at magnitude 0.0 and stands highest of the three stars. To its lower left lies Deneb; at magnitude 1.3, it is the faintest of the trio. Magnitude 0.8 Altair resides at the bottom right and completes the bright asterism. Despite its name, the Summer Triangle appears prominent from late spring until winter begins.
Thursday, June 2
• Saturn lies opposite the Sun in our sky tonight (officially at 3 a.m. EDT on June 3) and reaches its peak visibility for 2016. The ringed planet appears low in the southeast as darkness falls and grows more prominent as the evening wears on and it climbs higher. It stands about one-third of the way to the zenith in the southern sky around 1 a.m. local daylight time. Saturn lies among the background stars of southern Ophiuchus and shines at magnitude 0.0, nearly 10 times brighter than any of this constellation’s stars. When viewed through a telescope, the dramatic ring system spans 42″ and tilts 26° to our line of sight, while Saturn’s family of moderately bright moons appears next to the gorgeous world.
Friday, June 3
• The Moon reaches perigee, the closest point in its orbit around Earth, at 6:55 a.m. EDT. It then lies 224,402 miles (361,140 kilometers) away from us.
Saturday, June 4
• Another comet in the growing crowd of such objects discovered by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii makes its appearance in June’s morning sky. Comet PANSTARRS (C/2013 X1) currently glows around 7th magnitude in southern Aquarius. As a bonus today, the comet’s head lies less than 1° east of the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) while the comet’s tail grazes this bright planetary. From most of the United States, you’ll need a haze-free southeastern horizon to spot the comet through a telescope shortly before dawn breaks.
• New Moon occurs at 11:00 p.m. EDT. At its new phase, the Moon crosses the sky with the Sun and so remains hidden in our star’s glare.
Sunday, June 5
• Mercury reaches greatest elongation today, when it lies 24° west of the Sun and stands 6° high in the east a half-hour before sunrise. The innermost planet shines at magnitude 0.5 and shows up easily through binoculars if you have an unobstructed horizon. When viewed through a telescope, Mercury appears 8″ across and about one-third lit.
Source
Astronomy Magazine
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