THE NIGHT SKY - JUNE 2008
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By 11 o’clock on June evenings the famous seven stars of the Plough are a little past the Zenith in their journey westward and some way below them in the West and South-West lie the constellations that have dominated the spring sky, notably Leo and Virgo. Orange Arcturus which just edges out Vega as the brightest star of the northern heavens is still high in the South. Further east and much lower in the sky is the noticeably red star Antares in Scorpius. The trio of brilliant white stars, Vega, Deneb and Altair, collectively known as the “Summer Triangle” are now well above the eastern horizon. In the North the “W” shaped constellation of Cassiopeia is getting gradually higher, while yellow Capella and the stars of Perseus skirt the horizon.
Observing Highlights
The inner planets Venus and Mercury are both too close to the Sun to be properly observed during June and Mars is also rapidly disappearing in evening twilight. Saturn is a little higher than Mars in the western evening sky and Jupiter, unmistakeably brilliant although not very far above the horizon, is in the South-East after midnight.
Diary Dates
| Mon Jun 2nd | KAS Meeting – Edward Gomez: Chaos in the Solar System |
| Mon Jul 7th | 7 th KAS Annual General Meeting and Members’ Observing Forum. Members’ contributions towards this evening are sought. These need be no more than ten minutes in length and can cover any aspect of observational astronomy (something interesting you have seen or photographed lately?) or instrumentation. |
| Jul 20th – Aug 9th | 44th International Astronomical Youth Camp, Sayda Germany |
| Sat Sep 20th | FAS Convention – Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. Speakers include: Prof. Barrie Jones, Nik Symanek, Prof. Andy Fabian, Dr. Somak Raychaudhury |
| Mon Nov 3rd | KAS Meeting – David Whitehouse: Who Really Invented the Telescope? |
| Mon Dec 1st | KAS Meeting – Somak Raychaudhury: Einstein for the 21st century – Black Holes to Dark Energy |
| TBA | Society trips to the Herschel Museum in Bath and Woolsthorpe Manor |
| 2009 | International Astronomy Year Members’ ideas on how the Society could contribute to this are welcome! |