2019 Week 27: (June 30-July 6)

As we kick off the second half of 2019 there will be a Total Solar Eclipse for our friends in the Southern Hemisphere.  The eclipse totality will progress through Chile and into Argentina.

Date	Event
July 2	New Moon
July 2	Total Solar Eclipse
July 4	Mars 0.1°S of Moon
July 4	Mercury 3°S of Moon
July 4	Moon in Beehive (M44)

If you live in the city of Buenos Aires head south on the 2nd of July to witness the total solar eclipse.  This may be a once in a lifetime opportunity for many people and should not be missed.  As you can see in the image below the Southern Pacific Ocean chews up most of the totality but it will still hit some fairly high population areas towards the winter sunset.

July 2, 2019 Total Solar Eclipse

It has been almost two years since we had a total solar eclipse in North America that delighted people from Pacific to Atlantic.

Solar Eclipse from Calgary, August 21 2017.

Clearly the total solar eclipse coincides with the New Moon which kicks off another lunar cycle.  A few days later the slim waxing crescent Moon will be in conjunction with both Mars and Mercury.  This will make for a great binocular sight for those willing to risk the wrath of the mosquitoes along a trail with a great view of the western horizon.

Next week we can look forward to Saturn's opposition placing it at its closest and largest in the night sky.

There are two rocket launches scheduled for next week.  A Soyuz Rocket will be taking a polar-orbiting weather satellite into space from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia.  The next day a Vega rocket will take a high-resolution Earth imaging satellite into orbit for the UAE's military.

Date	Event
July 4	Soyuz - Meteor M2-2 (23:41)
July 5	Vega - Falcon Eye 1 (19:53)

What is exciting is that the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and the Calgary Public Library are teaming up to bring Calgary an amazing Astronomy Program.  We will be visiting every branch around the city for a one hour program all about the night sky.

We will talk about some famous constellations that can be seen during the Summer, the Moon, the Solar System and we will have a hydrogen-alpha telescope on hand to showcase our amazing home star-the Sun.  Details can be found at the following webpage:

https://events.calgarylibrary.ca/programs/online-registration?id=7902|1

Date	Event
July 4	Quarry Park Library (18:30-19:30)
July 6	Giuffre Family Library (14:30-15:30)

Do not miss this opportunity to freely educate yourselves or your family and friends.  We hope to see you out at one of the branches this Summer!

2019 Week 26: (June 23-June 29)

This week in the sky our innermost planet will be at its greatest elongation in the easterly direction.  Also, at 21°N declination it is well placed for Northern Hemisphere observers.

Date	Event
June 23	Mercury Greatest Elongation East (25°)
June 25	Last Quarter
June 27	Uranus 5°N of Moon

The Sun will set at 9:54pm this week and Mercury will follow more than an hour an a half later at 11:25pm. 

Mercury

This will provide ample time to glimpse the diminutive planet in the twilight sky.  At magnitude 0.6 it may be naked eye to the keen observer.  If you pack a set of binoculars you will see both Mercury and Mars within the same field of view.  The interesting non-intuitive thing will be that Mars is currently 3 times dimmer than Mercury.  The reason for this is Mars currently resides on the opposite side of the Sun to us; Mercury is much closer.  This is depicted in the image below.

Planetary Positions, June 23, 2019

The Moon will reach its Last Quarter phase this Tuesday and will be positioned in the early morning sky as it will rise around 02:00.  Three nights later the Moon will be in conjunction with Uranus which is currently sitting in Aries after spending several years in Pisces.

There are three rocket launches scheduled for this week.  Watch them live online.  In the afternoon of Monday June 24, a Chinese Long March 3B rocket will add a satellite to their navigation network.  Later in the evening a Falcon Heavy will be taking a bunch of military and scientific satellites into orbit.  This is a great one to watch as it is currently the largest rocket in operation.

Several evenings later an Electron rocket will take several payloads into orbit from New Zealand.

Date	Event
June 24	Long March 3B - Beidou (12:00)
June 24	Falcon Heavy - STP-2 (21:30)
June 27	Electron - Make it Rain (10:30)

This Summer we will have a special program that will be coming to every branch of the Calgary Public Library.  A detailed scheduled can be found at the link below.

https://calgary.rasc.ca/libraries2019.htm

This program is geared toward all members of the public and is generally recommended for those age 10 and above.  We will spend 20 minutes discussing what you can see in the Summer night sky and how to use a basic telescope.  The next part of the program will give participants a hands-on demonstration of the variety of telescopes in use today.  At the end we will take everyone outside with a special solar telescope to see the features on the Sun.  Hopefully we will have sunspots or prominences!  If it is cloudy we will instead spend more time inside watching educational astronomy videos.  Don't worry if you miss your chance with the solar scope, come to another branch on a sunny day!

Solar Telescope

We hope to see you out at one of the branches this Summer.  There will also be an observing contest for the youth with great prizes, so don't miss out!

2019 Week 25: (June 16-June 22)

This week in the sky there will be several conjunctions among Solar System objects and the Summer Solstice.

Date	Event
June 16	Jupiter 2.0°S of Moon
June 17	Full Moon
June 18	Mercury 0.2°N of Mars
June 18	Saturn 0.4°N of Moon
June 21	Solstice
June 21	Neptune Stationary

On Sunday evening catch a glimpse of the southeastern sky as the Moon and Jupiter will pair up nicely.  If you look through binoculars or a telescope you may be able to see five Moons: our Moon and the 4 Galilean Moons of Jupiter.

Mercury continues to separate itself from the Sun in the western sky at dusk.  It stays above the horizon for nearly an hour and a half after sunset and should be visible to most observers with the naked eye.  It is 4 times brighter than Mars which will appear alongside our smallest planet.  Snag some binoculars and see both of them in your field of view.

Mars/Mercury Conjunction

Once you are done observing the conjunction of Mercury and Mars swing over to the southeastern sky around midnight to catch the Moon and Saturn extremely close to each other.  They will certainly fit in a tight telescopic field and may make a great photograph for those skilled to handle the great brightness differential.

On June 21 at 9:54 MDT in the morning it will be the Summer Solstice.  The first hours of Summer.  A link for more information about it can be found below:

https://simonjastronomy.blogspot.com/2017/06/what-is-solstice.html

The Summer Solstice is a double edged sword for astronomers.  We will have the minimum of darkness for observing but every evening from now will give us more and more until December!

The very same evening Neptune will be stationary in the sky and will begin its retrograde motion.  The planet will appear to move westward compared to the background stars.  It has moved nearly 7° since I first observed it back in 2016.  It is slated to move into Pisces in 2022.

There are two rocket launches scheduled for this week.  An Ariane 5 rocket will be launching a bunch of communication satellites into orbit from French Guiana.  Following the next day a Russian Proton rocket will send a join Russian/German X-ray observatory.  This is quite exciting as it will conduct an all-sky survey in the X-ray band of the electromagnetic field.  Will it shine some light on dark matter?  Stay tuned.

Date	Event
June 20	Ariane 5 - AT&T T-16 & Eutelsat 7C
June 21	Proton - Spektr-RG

There are no public events planned for this week as most astronomy events are non-existent around the solstice.  However, starting the first week of July there will be a Summer long set of programs held at the Calgary Public Library.  We will be in each branch teaching youth and families all about astronomy!  Details can be found below!

https://events.calgarylibrary.ca/programs/online-registration?id=7902|1

We hope to see you out at one of these great events!  Bring friends and see the Sun through a telescope like you have never seen it before!

2019 Week 24: (June 9-June 15)

This week we will have an event that occurs only once per year; the opposition of Jupiter.  Of course the days and weeks after the event will be great as well since the big planet comes into view for casual observers who don't like to stay up too late.

Date	Event
June 9	First Quarter
June 10	Jupiter at Opposition
June 15	Ceres 0.9°S of Moon

When an planet is said to be in opposition it means it is directly opposite the Sun from the point of view of the Earth.  On June 10, Jupiter will be in opposition and will rise as the Sun sets.  Earth will be at its closest point to the big planet this year.  It will be at its brightest and largest.  Many planetary imagers spend time around oppositions taking pictures.

Below is an image I captured of Jupiter during its 2017 opposition.  The Great Red Spot is clearly visible.  I hope to spend time improving my planetary imaging this year if I can find the time.

Jupiter

Saturn will soon follow Jupiter a couple hours later in the southern sky.  The ringed planet approaches opposition during the middle of July.

To find Jupiter, check out the bright object in the southeast sky sometime after 10 or 10:30pm.

The Moon will reach its first quarter phase during the evening of Sunday, July 9 and will be well positioned for great observing.  The Moon will then move into conjunction with the dwarf planet Ceres (magnitude 7.4).  Ceres is conveniently located above the tip of the Scopion's tail.  It will get as close as 1.25° above Beta Scorpii and fit in many telescopic fields of view.  Watch this region of space over a few days and you will see Ceres move amongst the background stars.

There is one rocket launch scheduled for this week with a Falcon 9 taking three radar Earth observation satellites into space for the Canadian Space Agency.

Date	Event
June 12	Falcon 9 - Radarsat Constellation Mission

If you are looking for a good object in the sky to tell your friends about, look for M4.  This globular cluster is located just to the west of Antares.  Antares is the bright red star in Scorpius in the southern sky.  If you can find Jupiter look just to the southwest and you should see a bright red naked eye star.  A lot of people confuse it with Mars due to the ruddy colour and relative brightness.  In fact, the name Antares means the 'adversary of Ares' or the adversary of the god of war.  Mars is the god of war in the Roman pantheon.

When you find Antares, immediately put it into a binocular field.  You should see a cluster of stars (or blurry patch of light) just to the west.  This is M4 which sits more than 7,000 light years away from Earth and measures nearly 75 light years across.  A very large object and the first globular cluster in which individual stars were resolved.

Spend some time outside under clear skies this week and point out some Spring constellations to your friends, including Leo, Virgo, and Boötes!  Click on the links to aid your search!

Subscribe to our Facebook page for the latest news and updates on the sky!

www.facebook.com/simonjastronomy

2019 Week 23: (June 2-June 8)

This week we are hoping for less smoke and moderate conditions conducive to optimal viewing.  The smoke from the Northern Alberta forest fires encompassed Calgary with a thick blanket that essentially reduced visibility and breathability to zero.

Date	Event
June 3	New Moon
June 4	Mercury 4°N of Moon
June 5	Mars 1.6°N of Moon
June 5	Mercury 1.2°N of M35
June 7	Moon in Beehive (M44)

Early Monday morning the Moon completes another lunar cycle and will be new.  The waxing crescent shortly following will also signal the end of Ramadan and the celebration of Eid.  The next day at work were are inundated with excellent home cooked Middle Eastern food from members of our team.

The evening of June 4 the great challenge will begin.  Find a place where you have a clear view of the western horizon.  Shortly after the Sun sets the Moon will be well placed between Mercury and Mars.  Also Mercury will be sitting right next to the star cluster M35 just above the foot of Castor.  Mars is now quite distant from us and will actually appear 10x dimmer in the sky than the diminutive Mercury.

It may be difficult to catch a glimpse of this multiple conjunction as you will be contending with a bright dusk sky.  Binoculars or a telescope may assist you in this endeavour.  However, it is recommended you do not start using your optical aid until you are sure the Sun is below the horizon.

Mars/Moon/Mercury/M35 Conjunction

Two nights later the Moon will be in conjunction with the Beehive Cluster (M44).  This cluster forms the heart of the crab constellation known as Cancer.  Just after 11pm in the evening throw the Moon into your binocular field.  You will also see M44.  This conjunction will be much easier than the one from Tuesday as the sky will be darker.

There is one rocket launch tentatively scheduled for this week.  A Chinese Long March 11 will take a couple Earth-imaging satellites into orbit.

Long March 11 Rocket

Date	Event
June 5	Long March 11 - Jilin 1

 It will take off from an ocean platform in the Yellow Sea.  The launch time has yet to be determined.

This week we will explore a rather large but often forgotten constellation.  Boötes lies right above the head in late Spring from northern latitudes.  It contains the brightest star in the north celestial sky--Arcturus.  You may have wondered what that bright red/orange star above your head has been.

Typically recognized as the herdsman it forms the shape of a person holding a herding tool in its hand.  Although it contains no Messier objects it can be easily used to find the globular cluster M3.

M3 is located almost exactly between Arcturus and the bright star of the constellation Canes Venatici--Cor Coroli.

How to find M3

Cor Caroli is the bright star located under the last star in the handle of the Big Dipper.  Follow a line between Cor Caroli and Arcturus and you should glimpse the fairly bright globular cluster M3.

For more information about Boötes and M3 check out the links below:

https://simonjastronomy.blogspot.com/2017/04/explore-universe-bootes.html

https://simonjastronomy.blogspot.com/2018/05/messier-objects-m3.html

Spend some time under the dark skies this Spring and learn about the constellations.  Next week Jupiter will be at opposition and will appear the brightest and largest of 2019.  This is a perfect time to track down someone with a telescope to showcase the beauty of our Solar System's largest planet!