Skywatch Line for Friday, June 30, through Sunday, July 2, 2023
This is Dudley Observatory’s Skywatch Line for Friday, June 30, through Sunday, July 2, written by Sam Salem.
On Friday, Sun rises at 5:20am and sets at 8:38pm; Moon sets at 2:28am and rises at 6:03pm.
The Moon shines among the stars of upper Scorpius on Friday. The brightest of these stars is orange Antares. It sits about 3° to the Moon’s lower left. Next brightest star is Delta Scorpii, farther to the Moon’s upper right. Binoculars help locate these stars through the moonlight. On Saturday, the Moon shines midway between upper Scorpius, to its west, and the Sagittarius Teapot to its east. On Sunday, the Moon, just a day from full, shines inside the Sagittarius Teapot. Use binoculars to piece out the Teapot through the moonlight. The Teapot is about twice the width of a typical binocular’s field of view.
Antares is an eye-catching star, shining with a distinctive bright red sparkle on northern summer evenings. This star, also known as Alpha Scorpii, lies about 550 light-years away. It’s the brightest star in the zodiacal constellation Scorpius the Scorpion. Antares’s nickname is the Scorpion’s Heart. Its magnitude varies between 0.6 and 1.6. Antares is a red supergiant star in the final stages of its life. It holds the stellar classification of a M1 red supergiant star.
Mars and Venus are now at their minimum separation, of 3.6°. Mars will remain in low twilight view for more than a month to come. Venus will drop away faster. Venus, at magnitude –4.7 in the constellation of Leo under the Sickle, is the brilliant “Evening Star” in the west in twilight. It’s getting lower day by day, now setting soon after dark.
Get your telescope on Venus in the afternoon blue sky when it’s higher in steadier seeing. Watch Venus change daily. It will continue to swell in diameter and thin in phase as it drops lower and finally becomes lost from sight in mid- to late July.
Mars, at magnitude 1.7 in the constellation of Leo, glows weakly a little to Venus’s upper left. They’ve been approaching each other for months, but now they stop. Mars and Venus reach a minimum separation of 3.6° on Friday, then they’ll start to draw apart again as Venus plunges down toward the sunset. Look for Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation of Leo, somewhat farther upper left. Regulus looks a bit brighter than Mars.
Jupiter, at magnitude –2.2 in the constellation of Aries, is the bright object in the east before and during early dawn.
Saturn, at magnitude +0.9 in dim constellation of Aquarius, rises around midnight. By the beginning of dawn, it’s in steadiest telescopic view high in the south-southeast.