Skywatchers in June will want to see the planets Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus, the Hercules Cluster, and the constellation Lyra.
What’s Up for June? A planetary breakup, prime viewing for a well-known star cluster, and the constellation Lyra.
Skywatching highlights for June 2022 include the gathering of four naked-eye planets (SaturnSaturn is the sixth planet from the sun and has the second-largest mass in the Solar System. It has a much lower density than Earth but has a much greater volume. Saturn's name comes from the Roman god of wealth and agriculture.” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]”>Saturn, MarsMars is the second smallest planet in our solar system and the fourth planet from the sun. Iron oxide is prevalent in Mars' surface resulting in its reddish color and its nickname "The Red Planet." Mars' name comes from the Roman god of war.” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]”>Mars, JupiterJupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and the fifth planet from the sun. It is a gas giant with a mass greater then all of the other planets combined. Its name comes from the Roman god Jupiter.” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]”>Jupiter, and VenusVenus, the second planet from the sun, is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the moon, it is the second-brightest natural object in the night sky. Its rotation (243 Earth days) takes longer than its orbit of the Sun (224.7 Earth days). It is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" because of their similar composition, size, mass, and proximity to the Sun. It has no natural satellites.” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]”>Venus) in the morning sky. Check these out, before they break up. There is also the Hercules Cluster, one of the most well-known globular clusters, which you’ll be able to see with just binoculars if you don’t have access to a telescope. Enjoy a nice view of the constellation Lyra, which is easy to locate by looking for Vega, one of the brightest stars in the sky.
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The gathering of four naked-eye planets we’ve been enjoying in the morning sky for the past few months – including several close conjunctions, is beginning to break up. Over the next few months, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus will appear increasingly spread out across the morning sky – so much so that Venus and Saturn will make their exits as morning objects for most observers by September.
Look for this increasingly spaced out planetary precession in June, and note that the crescent moon jumps into the lineup on the morning of the 23rd.
Planets continue to make a show in the morning before sunrise in June, with the Moon joining the lineup on the 23rd. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
June is an excellent time to observe one of the best-known globular star clusters – M13, also known as the Hercules Cluster. Globular clusters are spherical collections of stars, tightly packed together in their centers. M13 itself contains several hundred thousand stars.
Globular clusters are also extremely old. The stars in M13 are thought to be around 12 billion years old, which is approaching the age of the universe itself. Our home galaxy, the Milky WayThe Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Earth, and is named for its appearance from Earth. It is a barred spiral galaxy that contains an estimated 100-400 billion stars and has a diameter between 150,000 and 200,000 light-years.” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]”>Milky Way, is known to have about 150 globular clusters. They orbit outside the galaxy’s disk, traveling tens of thousands of light-years above and below its spiral arms and most of its stars.
Find M13 in Hercules by first locating the stars that form the Keystone, about a third of the way between bright stars Vega and Arcturus. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Now, the Hercules Cluster is best observed with a telescope, and larger telescopes will allow you to see more of the cluster’s stars. But you can also find it with a pair of binoculars, where it’ll look like a hazy little spot.
Find M13 in the constellation Hercules, which is high in the east in the first couple of hours after dark in June.
This image, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the core of the great globular cluster Messier 13 and provides an extraordinarily clear view of the hundreds of thousands of stars in the cluster, one of the brightest and best known in the sky. Just 25,000 light-years away and about 145 light-years in diameter, Messier 13 has drawn the eye since its discovery by Edmund Halley, the noted British astronomer, in 1714. The cluster lies in the constellation of Hercules and is so bright that under the right conditions it is even visible to the unaided eye. Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA
First look for the bright stars Vega and Arcturus.
Then find the four stars that comprise “the Keystone,” which is the pattern making up the central part of Hercules.
You’ll find M13 about a third of the way between the two stars on the western, or leading, side of the Keystone.
So check out the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, M13, in June, and find yourself staring at an ancient gathering of stars that soars high above the Milky Way.
Lyra is easy to locate in the sky, thanks to the brightness of Vega, which is part of the Summer Triangle asterism. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Finally in June, a quick introduction to one of the smaller constellations that’s home to one of the brightest stars.
That’s the constellation Lyra.
It represents a lyre, or harp, played by the musician Orpheus in Greek mythology.
In Arab cultures, as well as ancient Egypt and India, Lyra was seen as an eagle.
And the Inca of South America saw it as a llama.
Find Lyra by looking for Vega, which is the westernmost of the three bright stars in the Summer Triangle.
This image shows the dramatic shape and color of the Ring Nebula, otherwise known as Messier 57. From Earth’s perspective, the nebula looks like a simple elliptical shape with a shaggy boundary. However, observations combining existing ground-based data with new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope data show that the nebula is shaped like a distorted doughnut. This doughnut has a rugby-ball-shaped region of lower-density material slotted into its central “gap,” stretching towards and away from us. It is located about 2,500 light years from Earth in the Lyra Constellation. Credit: NASA, ESA, and C. Robert O’Dell (Vanderbilt University)
In the Northern Hemisphere, you’ll find it halfway up the eastern sky in the first couple of hours after dark in June.
Vega is by far the brightest star in Lyra.
It’s the fifth brightest star in the sky and the second brightest in the Northern Hemisphere, after Sirius.
A pair of binoculars will help you see the others stars in Lyra, which form a sort of parallelogram hanging beneath it.
It’s sometimes described as looking a bit like a diamond ring, with Vega as the diamond.
And that’s not the only ring in Lyra. It’s also home to the famous Ring Nebula, where a star has blown off most of its outer layers, leaving behind a remnant star known as a white dwarfA white dwarf star is the remnant of star that has exhausted its nuclear fuel, but it lacks the mass to become a neutron star. A typical white dwarf is only slightly bigger than Earth, yet it is 200,000 times as dense.” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{“attribute”:”data-cmtooltip”, “format”:”html”}]”>white dwarf.
So let the bright star Vega lead you to Lyra, the harp constellation, in the June sky. And if you see it as an eagle, or a diamond ring, or a llama, well that’s perfectly okay too…
Source: SciTechDaily
