June 1, 2006
June Astronomy Note 2006
Summer Solstice will be on Wednesday at 5:30 am AZ time, or 6:30 am Navajo Daylight Time. According to the hopelessly retarded Astrology charts, the Sun will be entering Cancer, but astronomically it will just be "entering" Gemini from Taurus.
In the evening sky, three bright planets are visible. Mercury sets after sunset. You must wait until the sunset's glow diminishes to see it, though. Being closer to the sun than we are, is has moonlike phases, and it is showing less than half in June, so although it is widely separated from the Sun (in relative terms) it is still a bit dim.
A little higher in the western sky are Mars and Saturn, who will appear bright and very close together this month. Saturn is the brighter of the two planets. Midmonth will be very interesting for telescopes and binoculars, because Mars and Saturn will gradually come closer together, and by 13 June they will be only 1 degree to either side of the Beehive star cluster. On 15 June, Mars will be in the center of the cluster, and on 17 June, Mars and Saturn will be only half a degree apart, and the Beehive will be only one and a half degrees away.
Jupiter will appear in the southern sky at nightfall, and it will be very bright.
For meteor observers, 3 generally weak showers occur throughout the month. Anything can happen, as all three have been unpredictable, but expectations are very low. Arietids are actve all month, but this is mainly a radio/radar shower. June Lyrids, peaking 16 June, are not even on the Working List of Visible Meteor Showers. Finally, the June Bootids, which could produce a peak between 21 and 31 June, have only appeared once in 77 years.