Astroblog: Thursday June 8 to Thursday June 15

Tuesday, June 06, 2023

Thursday June 8 to Thursday June 15

The Last Quarter Moon is Sunday, June 11. Saturn is now rising just after local midnight and is high in the morning sky above the pair of Jupiter and Mercury. On the 10th waning Moon is close to Saturn, on the 14th the crescent moon is close to Jupiter. Venus is prominent from the evening twilight to early evening and comes closer to Mars. On June 13-14 Venus is on the outskirts of the Beehive open cluster.

The Last Quarter Moon is Sunday, June 11.

Morning sky on Saturday, June 10 as seen from Adelaide at 05:44 ACST, (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Saturn is high in the sky close to the waning Moon, above Jupiter and Mercury. The inset is the telescopic view of Saturn at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise).

Morning sky on Wednesday, June 14 as seen from Adelaide at 06:21 ACST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Saturn is high in the sky above Jupiter and Mercury. The crescent Moon is close to Jupiter. Mercury is low to the horizon near the Hyades and Pleiades. The inset is the telescopic view of Jupiter at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise).

Evening sky on Wednesday, June 14 as seen from Adelaide at 18:41 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Venus is close to the beehive cluster with Mars nearby. The inset is the binocular view of Venus and the Beehive.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset).

Whole sky on Saturday, June 10 as seen from Adelaide at 18:41 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mars is visible above the north western horizon and Venus is just below.

Orion the Hunter, is setting on the western horizon while Sirius is still prominent low in the western sky. Scorpius is rising in the east.

Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are another wealth of binocular objects to discover. However the Moons light is washing them out.

Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

Mercury is heading towards the horizon in the morning twilight, and is below Jupiter. As the week goes on Mercury leaves Jupiter behind in the morning twilight.

Venus climbs still higher in the twilight coming closer to Mars. On the 13th-14th Venus is on the outskirts of the Beehive open cluster.

Mars and Venus come closer.

Jupiter is prominent in the morning sky, with Mercury below it. As the week goes on Jupiter climbs higher in the morning twilight leaving Mercury behind. On the 14th the thin crescent Moon is close to Jupiter.

Saturn climbs higher in the morning skies and is rising just after local midnight. On the 10th the waning Moon is close to Saturn.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/

Labels: weekly sky