Earth is coming up on the summer solstice, which occurs June 20 at 2:43 p.m. Sechelt time. We have also nearly caught up with Jupiter and Saturn and, because of our higher orbital velocity, both those planets now appear to be moving from east to west (retrograde motion) against the stars. They both reach opposition when we pass between them and the Sun in July and will continue their retrograde motion until September when they’ll revert to normal prograde motion, i.e. west to east. Mars is getting brighter through June as we catch up to it before its very bright opposition in October. Significant events during June will be as follows:
First, Venus reaches inferior conjunction at mid-day on June 3, when it passes between us and the Sun. It will pass just 0.2 degrees north of the Sun, however, so we won’t get to see a transit across the disc of the Sun. And, just to rain on the parade, it will be 2117 before the next transit.
On June 5 the full Moon will partially pass through the Earth’s shadow in a penumbral eclipse. Only the northern third of the Moon will be partially shadowed though, and it will be at least half over by the time the moon rises. Yay.
Venus will appear in the morning sky by mid-month and will be occulted by the Moon passing in front of it a few minutes after midnight on June 19.
That would be an interesting sight if we were about 4,000 miles east of Sechelt; by the time the Moon and Venus rise here, it’ll be all over and the two will be a couple of degrees apart. Yay again.
Finally, two weeks after the almost lunar eclipse on the 5th, there will be an annular solar eclipse around local midnight on the 19th. However, the astute readers of these monthly articles will no doubt pick up on the idea that midnight is not exactly the best time to watch a solar eclipse. It should be pretty spectacular in Yemen, Nepal or Mongolia, however. Another yay. We’re seeing the pattern here, right?
Astronomy has something in common with standup comedy; timing is everything.
This and all of the movements of the Moon and planets described can be checked out on the web at: www.heavens-
above.com. The next regular meeting of the Astronomy Club will be on June 12 at 7 p.m. using Zoom. Jessica McIver from the Gravitational Wave Observatory in Washington State will be the guest speaker. Information on how to register for the meeting will be on the club website at
sunshinecoastastronomy.wordpress.com/ the week of the meeting.
– Richard Corbet, SC Astronomy Club
