Download nightwatch sheet june 2017 - National Museums Liverpool

NIGHTWATCH SHEET JUNE 2017.
Polaris.
The sky at 00h on the 15th. June 2017.
Full Moon: 9th. June. New Moon: 24th. June.
Summer Solstice; 21st. June.
The longest day of the year, the Summer Solstice, occurs this month. It is a day of
maximum daylight for us in the northern hemisphere but the shortest day of the year
down-under. After today the nights will start to lengthen again!
Only a few planets are visible this month. We start with the hellish world Venus: it
rises about two hours before the Sun this month so you need to be up early to see it.
It is a lovely bright object shining at -4.4, although as the sky brightens before
sunrise it will become a poorer object to view.
Jupiter: is visible in the South West from sunset and can be seen all night. It dims
slightly from magnitude -2.2 to -2.1 over the month. It lies in Virgo to the right of the
bright star Spica. The moon passes just to the north of Jupiter on the 3 rd.
Saturn rises around 1 a.m. and is the brightest object to be found in the constellation
of Ophiuchus. The ringed world shines at a steady magnitude of 0.0 and reaches
opposition on the 15th. The moon passes to the north of Saturn on the 10th.
The June Bootids is an unpredictable meteor shower, if you’d like to try and see it
the shower begins on the 22nd and peaks on the 27th. It continues on until early July.
Luckily this year the moon won’t be a problem until the end of the shower. Go out as
late as you can, switch off your house lights and block out any other lights and look
towards the north. Don’t forget to wrap up well, as even in June the nights can get
cold. Good luck!
Something worth looking out for on these light nights are Noctilucent Clouds
(NLC.) These are the highest clouds in the atmosphere some 80- 85 Km high, in the
region known as the Mesosphere, and are visible only during the weeks around the
solstice. Look towards the Pole star (Polaris) for bright electric blue clouds. These
clouds are lit by sunlight; even though the Sun will have set the clouds are so high
that sunlight still reaches them and gives them their eerie glow. They may be visible
for an hour or two before sunrise or after sunset.
On This Day…
50 Years Ago -- June 12 1967: Venera 4 was launched from Baikonur, USSR,
providing direct atmospheric studies of Venus.
50 Years Ago -- June 14 1967: Mariner 5 a Venus flyby mission was launched by
Atlas Agena from Cape Canaveral.
40 Years Ago -- June 16 1977: Dr. Wernher Von Braun, the father of modern
rocketry died.
5 Years Ago -- June 16 2012: Shenzhou 9 spacecraft was launched from Jiuquan
in the Peoples Republic of China on a Long-March 2F launch vehicle. It docked with
China's first space lab Tiangong-1 on the 18th.June. This successfully completed
China's first manned spacecraft rendezvous and docking.
Mariner 5.
Venera 4.