06/01/2015 – Ephemeris – Starting orbit 41 looking at June skies

Ephemeris for Monday, June 1st.  Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 20 minutes, setting at 9:21.   The Moon, 1 day before full, will set at 6:17 tomorrow morning and tomorrow the Sun will rise at 6:00.

We’ll start Ephemeris’ 41st orbit of the Sun by looking at the skies of June.  There’ will be a lot of sun in June and very little night.  The daylight hours will increase a bit from 15 hours and 20 minutes today to 15 hours and 34 minutes on the 21st, retreating back to 15 hours 31 minutes at month’s end.  At this time of the year the sunset times for Ludington, Interlochen, Petoskey and Mackinaw City are very nearly the same.  However the sunrise times are at their most divergent.  With Ludington’s sunrise being 14 minutes later than Mackinaw City’s.  The altitude of the sun above the southern horizon at local noon will hover around 68 to 69 degrees.  Local noon, when the sun is actually due south will occur at about 1:43 p.m.  Here’s what we’ve been waiting for:  Summer will start on the 21st at 12:38 p.m.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Star Chart for June 2015. Created using my LookingUp program.

The Moon is not plotted.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 11 p.m. EDT.  That is chart time.  Note, Traverse City is located 1 hour 45 minutes behind our time meridian.  To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere set it to 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than the current time.

Evening Astronomical twilight ends at 11:43 p.m. EDT on June 1st, increasing to midnight EDT on the 30th.

Morning astronomical twilight starts at 4:38 a.m. EDT on June 1st, and decreasing to 3:31 a.m. EDT on the 30th.

Add a half hour to the chart time every week before the 15th and subtract and hour for every week after the 15th.

For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations click here.

The green pointer from the Big Dipper is:

• Pointer stars at the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris the North Star.
• Drill a hole in the bowl of the Big Dipper and the water will drip on the back of Leo the Lion.
• Follow the arc of the Big Dipper’s handle to Arcturus
  • Continue with a spike to Spica
• The Summer Triangle is shown in red

Calendar of Planetary Events

Credit:  Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA’s GSFC)

To generate your own calendar go to http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html

Times are Eastern Daylight Time on a 24 hour clock.  Some additions made to aid clarity.

Conjunctions like the Moon-Saturn: 2.1° S means Saturn will appear 2.3° south of the Moon.

Jun	01	Mo		Venus: 45.3° E
	01	Mo	16:02	Moon-Saturn: 2° S
	02	Tu	12:19	Full Moon
	03	We	17:10	Moon South Dec.: 18.4° S
	06	Sa	14:59	Venus Elongation: 45.4° E
	09	Tu	11:42	Last Quarter
	10	We	00:39	Moon Perigee: 369700 km
	10	We	19:29	Moon Descending Node
	13	Sa	04:59	Venus-Beehive: 0.6° N
	14	Su	10:39	Mars Solar Conjunction
	16	Tu	10:05	New Moon
	16	Tu	15:47	Moon North Dec.: 18.5° N
	20	Sa	07:28	Moon-Venus: 6.3° N
	21	Su	12:38	Summer Solstice
	23	Tu	05:39	Mercury-Aldebaran: 1.9° N
	23	Tu	13:01	Moon Apogee: 404100 km
	24	We	07:03	First Quarter
	24	We	12:59	Mercury Elongation: 22.5° W
	24	We	13:23	Moon Ascending Node
	28	Su	21:27	Moon-Saturn: 2.1° S
	30	Tu	22:14	Venus-Jupiter: 0.3° N
Jul	01	We	02:48	Moon South Dec.: 18.4° S
	01	We		Venus: 42.4° E