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Highlights for June, 2008

The Moon and Planets:

The Moon. The 5-day old crescent Moon and Mars are within 2 degrees on June 7th. The next night (June 8) Saturn and the Moon are within 4 degrees. On June 16th, the nearly full moon glides within a degree of Antares. The morning of 6/20 sees the Moon within 4 degrees of Jupiter. The morning of June 23 is special - the Moon will occult Neptune! It may be hard to see Neptune as it nears the sunlit side of the gibbous moon around 1 am, but it should be easy to spot Neptune as it emerges from the dark side of the moon around 2:14 am. Finally, on the morning of June 30, a thin (waning) crescent moon will be within 2 degrees of the Pleiades.

 Mercury is in the Sun's glare during most of June. Superior conjunction is June 6th.

Venus is also lost in the Sun's glare throughout June. Superior conjunction is June 9th.

Mars is now around magnitude 1.5 and moving closer to the Western horizon each day. On June 30, Mars will be within 45 arc-seconds of Regulus.

Jupiter rises about 11 pm at the beginning of June. By month's end it will rise by 9 pm. There will be several transits and shadow transits during the month, but no double transits will be visible from the Las Cruces area.

Saturn is now at an angle with the Earth and Sun which causes the planet's shadow to show prominently against its rings. It gives a very cool 3-D effect.

Outer Planets. Uranus is a good viewing target immediately prior to dawn. Neptune is also best seen immediately prior to dawn. The Moon occults Neptune on June 23rd. The emergence of Neptune from the Moon's dark side should look good under high power.

Pluto is at opposition on June 20. It's as bright (mag 13.9) as it's going to be for quite some time (a couple hundred years, actually), so get out and have a look. Theoretically, an 8" scope should be capable of seeing the planet under ideal conditions. Bigger is better.

Comets, Asteroids and Meteor Showers:

Arietids - Peaks June 7th. The radiant (in Aries) makes these meteors difficult to see. They're best viewed just before Dawn or after dusk. A waxing crescent moon should favor early morning observing.

June Bootids - Peaks in late June. The shower is highly variable, but can produce up to 100 ZHR.

Asteroids (20) Massalia and (3) Juno - reach opposition in mid-June. At mag. 9.9, binoculars or a small telescope should easily find the objects. Both minor planets will be moving through Ophiuchus during June (paths shown on right - click for larger image).

Constellations and Deep Space Objects:

Orion disappears into the Western horizon during June and is replaced by his arch-rival, Scorpius which rises in the East beginning at dusk. Immediately behind Scorpius is Sagittarius and the Southern Milky Way with its scores of nebulae and star clusters.

On the Northern side of the sky, Ursa Major puts on one of its best showing of he year circling high above Polaris during the early evening. A number of deep sky objects can be seen in the Ursa Major including several bright galaxies and a planetary nebula.

 

June 2008

  • Jun ?? - Inmarsat 4 F-3 Proton M-Briz M Launch
  • Jun ?? - Orbcomm 2 F1-F6/Agatusat Cosmos 3M Launch
  • Jun ?? -[May 25] Cosmos-Kobalt M N4 Soyuz U Launch
  • Jun ?? -[May 26] Cosmos-Persona N1 Soyuz 2-1b Launch
  • Jun ?? -[May 30] Omid Shahab 4 Launch (Iran )
  • Jun 01 - Cassini, Distant Flyby of Pallene & Janus
  • Jun 01 -[May 29] Asteroid 2008 KO Near-Earth Flyby (0.011 AU)
  • Jun 01 - SOFIA Community Task Force Workshop II: Early Science Opportunities with SOFIA, St. Louis, Missouri
  • Jun 01-05 - 212th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), St. Louis, Missouri
  • Jun 01-05 -[May 24] 4th International Workshop On The Dark Side Of The Universe (DSU 2008), Cairo, Egypt
  • Jun 01-06 - International Workshop: Solar Variability, Earth's Climate and the Space Environment, Bozeman, Montana
  • Jun 01-06 - 14th International Symposium on Particles, Strings, and Cosmology (PASCOS 08), Waterloo, Canada
  • Jun 01-08 - 26th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science (ISTS): Challenge Spirits for Infinite Space, Hamamatsu, Japan
  • Jun 01-08 -[May 29] Texas Star Party, near Fort Davis, Texas
  • Jun 02 - Comet C/2007 W3 (LINEAR) Perihelion (1.776 AU)
  • Jun 02 - Asteroid 1922 Zulu Occults HIP 101076 (4.0 Magnitude Star)
  • Jun 02 - Asteroid 32096 Puckett Closest Approach To Earth (1.338 AU)
  • Jun 02 -[May 24] Seminar: Observing Extrasolar Worlds - From Gas Giant to Terrestrial Planets, Moffett Field, California
  • Jun 02 - 5th Anniversary (2003), Mars Express/ Beagle 2 Launch
  • Jun 02 - 25th Anniversary (1983), Venera 15 Launch (USSR Venus Orbiter)
  • Jun 02-04 - Melbourne Neutrino Theory Workshop, Melbourne, Australia
  • Jun 02-05 - 7th European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar (EUSAR 2008), Friedrichshafen, Germany
  • Jun 02-05 - 7th International ESA Conference on Guidance, Navigation & Control Systems (GNC 2008), Ireland
  • Jun 03 -[May 30] Asteroid 2008 KT Near-Earth Flyby (0.009 AU)
  • Jun 03 - Asteroid 9249 Yen Closest Approach To Earth (1.099 AU)
  • Jun 03 - Asteroid 416 Vaticana Closest Approach To Earth (1.171 AU)
  • Jun 03 - Asteroid 9349 Lucas Closest Approach To Earth (1.205 AU)
  • Jun 03 - Asteroid 2362 Mark Twain Closest Approach To Earth (1.283 AU)
  • Jun 03 - 200-inch Hale Telescope's 60th Birthday (1948)
  • Jun 03-05 - Outer Planet Flagship Mission Instrument Workshop, Monrovia, California
  • Jun 04 -[May 31] Asteroid 2008 KX2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.059 AU)
  • Jun 04-06 - Scientific Workshop: The Central Kiloparsec - Active Galactic Nuclei and Their Hosts, Crete, Italy
  • Jun 04-06 -[May 24] 13th Conference On Recent Developments In Gravity (NEB XIII), Thessaloniki, Greece
  • Jun 05 -[May 31] GLAST Delta 2 Launch
  • Jun 05 - Asteroid 25275 Jocelynbell Closest Approach To Earth (1.603 AU)
  • Jun 05 - Comet C/2006 U6 (Spacewatch) Perihelion (2.498 AU)
  • Jun 05 -[May 27] Sydney's Observatory's 150th Birthday (1858)
  • Jun 05-06 - Conference: Evolutions in Telecommunications Satellite Ground Segments, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
  • Jun 06 - Kuiper Belt Object 28978 Ixion Closest Approach To Earth (40.804 AU)
  • Jun 06 - 25th Anniversary (1983), Venera 16 Launch (USSR Venus Orbiter)
  • Jun 06-08 - 2nd Annual Bootleg Astronomers Star Party, Harmon, Illinois
  • Jun 07 - Comet 86P/Wild 3 Closest Approach To Earth (1.290 AU)
  • Jun 07 - Asteroid 343 Ostara Occults HIP 2100 (6.5 Magnitude Star)
  • Jun 07 - Asteroid 67 Asia Closest Approach To Earth (1.124 AU)
  • Jun 08 - Cassini, Distant Flyby of Pan & Pandora
  • Jun 08 -[May 30] New Horizons, Crosses Saturn's Orbit
  • Jun 08 - Moon Occults Mars
  • Jun 08 - Asteroid 17152 (1999 JA118) Occults HIP 4382 (6.5 Magnitude Star)
  • Jun 08 - Asteroid 2008 JS26 Near-Earth Flyby (0.059 AU)
  • Jun 08 - Asteroid 5471 Tunguska Closest Approach To Earth (1.786 AU)
  • Jun 08-11 - Great Lakes Cosmology Workshop, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • Jun 08-13 - 3rd International Conference on Numerical Modeling of Space Plasma Flows (ASTRONUM-2008), St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands
  • Jun 09 - Asteroid 951 Gaspra Occults TYC 5231-00483-1 (9.5 Magnitude Star)
  • Jun 09 - Kuiper Belt Object 50000 Quaoar Closest Approach To Earth (42.230 AU)
  • Jun 09-11 - Mars Express Data Workshops: MARSIS & MaRS, Madrid, Spain
  • Jun 09-13 - IAU Symposium 254: The Galaxy Disk in Cosmological Context, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Jun 09-14 - 4th Annual Penn State Summer School in Statistics for Astronomer, State College, Pennsylvania
  • Jun 10 - Asteroid 7328 Casanova Closest Approach To Earth (1.499 AU)
  • Jun 10 - 5th Anniversary (2003), Mars Exploration Rover A (Spirit) Launch
  • Jun 10 - 35th Anniversary (1973), Explorer 49 Launch (Moon Orbiter)
  • Jun 10-12 - 3rd Internatinal MAXI Workshop: Astrophysics with All-Sky X-Ray Observations, Saitama, Japan
  • Jun 10-12 - ISCe Satellite and Communications Conference, San Diego, Califronia
  • Jun 10-13 - Workshop: Gas and Stars in Galaxies - A Multi-Wavelength 3D Perspective, Garching, Germany
  • Jun 10-17 - 11th Synthesis Imaging Workshop, Socorro, New Mexico
  • Jun 11 - Asteroid 20 Massalia At Opposition (9.9 Magnitude)
  • Jun 11-13 - Calar Alto Instrumentation Workshop, Granada, Spain
  • Jun 11-13 - Geoinformatics 2008 - Data to Knowledge, Potsdam, Germany
  • Jun 11-20 - 51st Session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Vienna, Austria
  • Jun 12 - Cassini, Distant Flyby of Titan
  • Jun 12 - Comet C/2007 W1 (Boattini) Near-Earth Flyby (0.210 AU)
  • Jun 12 - Comet P/2008 A2 (LINEAR) Perihelion (1.305 AU)
  • Jun 12 - Asteroid 2099 Opik Closest Approach To Earth (1.541 AU)
  • Jun 12-13 -[May 29] Canadian Advanced Life Support System (CanALSS) Workshop, Guelph, Canada
  • Jun 12-14 - International Workshop: Post Newton 2008, Jena, Germany
  • Jun 13 - Comet 68P//Klemola Closest Approach To Earth (1.855 AU)
  • Jun 13 - Asteroid 3 Juno At Opposition (10.0 Magnitude)
  • Jun 13 - Asteroid 7610 Sudbury Closest Approach To Earth (1.952 AU)
  • Jun 13-14 - 38th Annual Apollo Rendezvous Telescope Convention & Star Party: GreatCon 2008, Dayton, Ohio
  • Jun 13-15 - 3rd International Conference on the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime, Montreal, Canada
  • Jun 13-15 - Annual CanSat Competition, Amarillo, Texas
  • Jun 15 -[May 24] OSTM/Jason 2 Delta 2 Launch
  • Jun 15 - Cassini, Distant Flyby of Epimetheus & Prometheus
  • Jun 15 - Asteroid 1048 Feodosia Occults HIP 86170 (4.4 Magnitude Star)
  • Jun 15 - Asteroid 7000 Curie Closest Approach To Earth (1.510 AU)
  • Jun 15-20 - Conference: Merging Black Holes in Galaxies - Galaxy Evolution, AGN and Gravitational Waves, near Katoomba, Australia
  • Jun 15-20 - 5th International Conference on New Developments In Photodetection - 2008, Aix-les-Bains, France
  • Jun 16 - Asteroid 149244 Kriegh Closest Approach To Earth (0.938 AU)
  • Jun 16 - 45th Anniversary (1963), 1st Woman In Space (Valentina Tereshkova)
  • Jun 16-17 - Workshop: Interstellar Medium and Star formation with ALMA, Madrid, Spain
  • Jun 16-18 - 4th European Workshop on Inflatable Space Structures (4EWISS), Noordwijk, The Netherlands
  • Jun 16-18 - International Workshop: Extra-Solar Super-Earths, Nantes, France
  • Jun 16-19 - Astronet Infrastructure Roadmap Symposium, Liverpool, United Kingdom
  • Jun 16-20 - IAU Symposium 255: Low-Metallicity Star Formation: From the First Stars to Dwarf Galaxies, Villasimius, Sardegna, Italy
  • Jun 16-20 - 7th International LISA Symposium, Barcelona, Spain
  • Jun 16-20 - 5th Meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society, Busan, Korea
  • Jun 17 - Asteroid 3761 Romanskaya Occults HIP 97398 (6.7 Magnitude Star)
  • Jun 17 - Asteroid 4151 Alanhale Closest Approach To Earth (2.394 AU)
  • Jun 18 - Asteroid 2410 Morrison Closest Approach To Earth (1.168 AU)
  • Jun 18 - Asteroid 9963 Sandage Closest Approach To Earth (1.420 AU)
  • Jun 18 - Asteroid 4769 Castalia Closest Approach To Earth (1.562 AU)
  • Jun 18 - 25th Anniversary (1983), 1st US Woman In Space (Sally Ride)
  • Jun 18-19 -[May 24] TEC-EES Final Presentation Days, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
  • Jun 19 - Comet C/2008 J4 (McNaught) Perihelion (0.447 AU)
  • Jun 19 - Comet 51P/Harrington Perihelion (1.688 AU)
  • Jun 19 - Dwarf Planet 134340 Pluto Closest Approach To Earth (30.476 AU)
  • Jun 19 - Asteroid 2008 GO20 Near-Earth Flyby (0.051 AU)
  • Jun 19 - Asteroid 3061 Cook Closest Approach To Earth (1.857 AU)
  • Jun 19 - Asteroid 5281 Lindstrom Closest Approach To Earth (2.128 AU)
  • Jun 19 - Lecture: The Heliospheric Magnetic Field, the Solar Wind & the Interstellar Medium, Pasadena, California
  • Jun 19 - 5th Anniversary (2003), Nozomi, Earth Flyby
  • Jun 20 - Summer Solstice, 23:59 UT
  • Jun 20 - Pluto At Opposition
  • Jun 20 - Comet C/2008 J1 (Boattini) Closest Approach To Earth (1.458 AU)
  • Jun 20 - Lecture: The Heliospheric Magnetic Field, the Solar Wind & the Interstellar Medium, Pasadena, California
  • Jun 20-26 - Conference: Interacting Binaries - Accretion and Synchronization, Crimea, Ukraine
  • Jun 21 - Asteroid 1296 Andree Occults HIP 6334 (6.9 Magnitude Star)
  • Jun 21 -[May 28] NASA Glenn Visitor Center Event: Touchdown on Mars, Cleveland, Ohio
  • Jun 21 - Max Wolf's 145th Birthday (1863)
  • Jun 21-27 - 6th International Planetary Probe Workshop (IPPW-6), Atlanta, Georgia
  • Jun 21-Jul 01 - International School on AstroParticle Physics 2008 - Dark Matter in Astrophysics and Particle Physics, Madrid, Spain
  • Jun 22 - Chinasat 9 CZ-3B Launch (China)
  • Jun 22 - Comet 15P/Finlay Perihelion (0.970 AU)
  • Jun 22 - Comet C/2007 G1 (LINEAR) Closest Approach To Earth (2.077 AU)
  • Jun 22 - 30th Anniversary (1978), Jim Christy's Discovery of Pluto's Moon Charon
  • Jun 22-25 - NASA/ESA Conference on Adaptive Hardware and Systems (AHS-2008), Noordwijk, The Netherlands
  • Jun 22-27 - Conference: Life in Space for Life on Earth, Angers, France
  • Jun 22-27 - 2008 MY NASA DATA Teacher Workshop, Hampton, Virginia
  • Jun 23 - Cassini, Orbital Trim Maneuver #159 (OTM-159)
  • Jun 23 - Cassini, Distant Flyby of Atlas, Methone & Pan
  • Jun 23 - Asteroid 2005 WC Near-Earth Flyby (0.072 AU)
  • Jun 23-25 - Symposium: Symmetries and Phases in the Universe, Kloster Irsee, Germany
  • Jun 23-26 - CMBPol Mission Concept Study: Theory and Foreground Workshop, Batavia, Illinois
  • Jun 23-27 - 6th International Planetary Probe Workshop (IPPW-6), Atlanta, Georgia
  • Jun 23-27 - Conference: The Cosmic Odyssey of the Elements, Aegina, Greece
  • Jun 23-27 - Conference: Problems of Practical Cosmology, St. Petersburg, Russia
  • Jun 23-27 - Helas NA5 Workshop: Interpretation of Asteroseismic Data, Wroclaw, Poland
  • Jun 23-27 - International Workshop: 60 Years of Casimir Effect, Brasilia, Brazil
  • Jun 23-27 - 2008 Nanjing GRB Conference, Nanjing, China
  • Jun 23-27 - Workshop: Low-Frequency Pulsar Science, Leiden, The Netherlands
  • Jun 23-27 - 2008 National Space & Missile Materials Symposium (NSMMS), Henderson, Nevada
  • Jun 23-28 - SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 2008, Marseille, France
  • Jun 23-28 - 13th Russian Gravitational Conference: International Conference on Gravitation, Cosmology and Astrophysics, Moscow, Russia
  • Jun 23-Jul 05 - 7th Network of European Observatories in the North (NEON) Observing School, La Palma, Spain
  • Jun 24 -[May 26] ORS/D-Sat/Celestis-5 Falcon 1 Launch
  • Jun 24 - Comet C/2007 W1 (Boattini) Perihelion (0.850 AU)
  • Jun 24 - Comet C/2008 E3 (Garradd) Closest Approach To Earth (4.715 AU)
  • Jun 25 - Asteroid 1000 Piazzia Closest Approach To Earth (1.474 AU)
  • Jun 25 - Asteroid 3252 Johnny Closest Approach To Earth (1.926 AU)
  • Jun 25 - Asteroid 9548 Fortran Closest Approach To Earth (1.949 AU)
  • Jun 25-30 - Workshop: Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics - From Stable Beams to Exotic Nuclei, Cappadocia, Turkey
  • Jun 26 - Asteroid 2006 KZ39 Near-Mercury Flyby (0.026 AU)
  • Jun 26 - Asteroid 9342 Carygrant Closest Approach To Earth (1.240 AU)
  • Jun 26 - Asteroid 1677 Tycho Brahe Closest Approach To Earth (1.311 AU)
  • Jun 26 - 30th Anniversary (1978), SEASAT 1 Launch
  • Jun 26-27 - On-Board Payload Data Compression Workshop, Noordwijk, The Netherlands
  • Jun 26-28 - International Conference: 100 Years Since Tunguska Phenomenon - Past, Present and Future, Moscow, Russia
  • Jun 27 -[May 26] Badr 6 (Arabsat 4C)/ ProtoStar 1 Ariane 5 Launch
  • Jun 27 - Comet Taylor Near-Jupiter Flyby (0.159 AU)
  • Jun 27 - Comet C/2007 W3 (LINEAR) Closest Approach To Earth (1.575 AU)
  • Jun 27 - Asteroid 1776 Kuiper Closest Approach To Earth (2.149 AU)
  • Jun 27 - Asteroid 21564 Widmanstatten Closest Approach To Earth (2.222 AU)
  • Jun 27-Jul 05 - 2nd Course of the International School on Astrophysical Relativity: Frontiers in Numerical Gravitational Astrophysics, Erice, Italy
  • Jun 28 - Cassini, Distant Flyby of Titan
  • Jun 28 - Asteroid 162004 (1991 VE) Near-Mercury Flyby (0.033 AU)
  • Jun 28 - Asteroid 2224 Tucson Closest Approach To Earth (1.734 AU)
  • Jun 29 - Asteroid 5554 Keesey Closest Approach To Earth (1.343 AU)
  • Jun 29 - George Hale's 140th Birthday (1868)
  • Jun 29-Jul 02 - 2008 Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA) Annual Meeting and Technical Conference, Green Bank, West Virgnia
  • Jun 29-Jul 03 - 9th International Conference on Permafrost, Fairbanks, Alaska
  • Jun 29-Jul 05 - 7th Alexander Friedmann International Seminar On Gravitation And Cosmology, Joao Pessoa, Brazil
  • Jun 30 - Cassini, Distant Flyby of Pan, Prometheus, Enceladus, Methone, Janus & Atlas
  • Jun 30 -[May 30] Comet C/2008 J5 (Garradd) Closest Approach To Earth (1.252 AU)
  • Jun 30 - Asteroid 7536 Fahrenheit Closest Approach To Earth (1.420 AU)
  • Jun 30 - 100th Anniversary (1908), Tunguska Explosion Event
  • Jun 30-Jul 04 - Workshop: Astrophysics of Neutron Stars 2008, Istanbul, Turkey
  • Jun 30-Jul 04 - 16th European White Dwarf Workshop, Barcelona, Spain
  • Jun 30-Jul 04 - Annual Meeting of the French Astronomical Society, Paris, France
  • Jun 30-Jul 04 - QG2 2008 - Quantum Geometry and Quantum Gravity Conference, Nottingham, United Kingdom
  • Jun 30-Jul 11 - Workshop: Asymmetric Instabilities in Stellar Core Collapse, Paris, France