This column was provided by San Benito County resident and amateur astronomer Ronald Obeas part of a local series on astronomy. Lea este articulo en español aqui.
My last article in Benitolink was in March with a focus on the southern sky reflecting on my trip to New Zealand and Australia in January/February. That part of the world is now getting ready for Winter that starts on June 21. June is transition month from Galaxy season to globular cluster and nebula season.
The later you stay up at night the more you will see the Milky Way as it comes out of the spout of the teapot (better known as Sagittarius) and sweeps across the sky. If you look at the western sky shortly after the sun sets, you will see Venus and Jupiter which are currently in close proximity to one another. You and also see a rather dim Mercury which is at its highest location in the sky on June 15. If you are itching to see Neptune you’ll have to wait until around 2:30 in morning with views of Saturn about 30 minutes later. Mars comes up at around 5:00.
If that doesn’t appeal to you, you’ll have to exercise patience and wait until late July/August/September. The moon starts to wax on June 18 and will be a quarter moon
on June 20 th which falls on a Saturday. This is the perfect time to look at the moon.
Why you may ask. The dividing line between the dark part of the moon and the light
part of the moon brings out the creators and the mountain ranges (the shadow effect).
As the moon gets fuller the creators and mountain ranges disappear and from my
perspective the moon gets pretty boring not to mention the fact that the brightness of
the moon totally washes out all the objects that that you can see in the sky. I have
enclosed in this article a picture of the Veil Nebula located in Cygnus the Swan and
taken with my new Mini Dwarf Lab camera.
I will be posting in What’s going on in Hollister different locations where I might be
setting up my telescope for people in the community to see the wonders of the sky. I
typically set up at the Historical Park south of Tres Pinos as this location provides easy
access for families that don’t want to drive all the way to Fremont’s Peak. For the
Western sky I go to the parking lot at Christ Fellowship Church which I will most likely do
this month to see Jupiter and Venus. Hope to see you at one of these locations real
soon. Take care and clear skies.
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