What’s up in Space

Our Solar System

• The Sun is in the zodiacal constellation of Aries. It sets around 5:10pm and rises around 7:20am.
• The Moon is Waning Gibbous. 
• Mars – not visible from Wellington is visually in the zodiacal constellation Gemini, but at a distance of 353 million kilometres, or just about 19 light minutes away, so communication with the red planet is very delayed now. 
• Jupiter rises around 6:30PM, and is in the constellation of Ophiuchus at a real distance of 652 million kilometres or about 36 light minutes from Earth.
• followed by Saturn and Pluto two hours later, in Sagittarius. We cannot see Pluto with the naked eye. Saturn is 1405 million kilometres away at just over 1 hour and 20 light minutes away – more precisely 78 light minutes whereas Pluto at magnitude 14.3 is 4967 million kilometres away, at about 276 light minutes – more than four and half light hours away. The Solar System is really vast!
• For early risers: Venus in Aries rises around 5:30 AM but it’s very close to the Sun thus not visible from Wellington. 
• Mercury is in Taurus, very close to the Sun now so not visible still is 197 million kilometres from Earth, about 11 light minutes away.
• Neptune is in Aquarius at 4527 million kilometres from Earth or 251 light minutes, just about 4 hours and 20 minutes

Stars

• Milky Way‘s centre is flanked by Jupiter and Saturn and visible at sunset in the east, the edge of our galaxy is towards the constellation Orion setting in the west. 
• Bright stars on the ecliptic are Regulus in Leo and Spica in Virgo and later on Antares in Scorpius. 

The Moon is Waning Gibbous this week, and was full on Sunday.

There are beautiful objects you can see in the night sky, some are circumpolar and some are seasonal.

• An in-depth look at the area between the Southern Cross and the Magellanic Clouds here.
• Binocular Objects between Southern Cross and the Diamond Cross here.

From Wellington it is always a great time to learn the main asterisms (groupings of stars) that make the main constellations since our light pollution does allow us to observe only the brightest stars.

You can also observe craters on the Moon – here is a comprehensive map of it by Google Moon. 

Milky Way’s centre is now rising around 7 PM. Omega Centauri is now well positioned for observing and so is the Jewel Box and of course our neigbouring galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds. 

On average, the Moon rises or, if it’s already in the sky, sets about 50 minutes later than the previous day, every day.

New Moon: Monday 03 June at 10:02:06 AM

First Quarter: Monday 10 June at 005:59:30 PM

Full Moon: Monday 17 June at 08:30:20 PM

Last Quarter: Monday 27 May at 04:33:43 AM

Lunar Eclipse: 17 July 2019, 9:32:11 AM 

Data compiled with Sky Safari Pro

Our Stargazing 101 Course has now ended, thank you so much to everyone who participated it was fantastic to have you there!  

Haritina just visited the Royal Observatory Greenwich. The Royal Observatory is the centre of navigation and time history. It was here that the main advances in navigation were made during the 1700s. There is a natural linkage between this rich history and New Zealand by way of James Cook’s voyages to New Zealand, where he tested the H4 chronometer as well as contributed to the comparison of the time method with the lunar method of finding longitude. Carter Observatory in many ways is like a small version of Greenwich, in that it was important for management of time and for shipping vessels. We share the same historical telescopes, the same prominent position in the capital city. Keep an eye on a new blog coming about my visit there. 

At Space Place, we open our telescope for viewings every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday night if the weather is on our side. Alternatively, the planetarium live shows is a great place to see our current night skies.  Let us know how it went, or if you have any questions by visiting our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. 

Clear skies for the week ahead!