Venus is the “Evening Star” during dusk. Seven degrees ahead in the ecliptic is Mars, but 6 magnitudes fainter than Venus. On the 12th, Venus passes Mars only .5 degrees north. On the 20th, Venus passes Regulus at 1 degree distance. Mars follows behind Venus and passes Regulus on the 29th at only .6 degrees distance. Since they set at 8:30 pm, one has to watch this when it is still bright outside. Regulus should be visible. Mars is half magnitude fainter and will come into view then too.
Mars is close to Venus this month.
Saturn rises once it is dark and it stays up all night. Its opposition will be August 1st.
20 degrees east of Mars is Jupiter. Both planets form a large triangle with Fomalhaut well below them. This is best viewed in the morning when they are higher. The shape of this triangle will change as the distance between Jupiter and Saturn decreases over the summer. The right angle at Jupiter will become a larger angle.
Uranus and Neptune are morning planets.
Mercury has a short showing until July 22. It rises at 4 am below Castor and Pollux and does not come up high before twilight gets bright.
The Moon shortly after New Moon might be barely visible on the 10th. The next day, it will be beautifully paired with Venus to its left and Mars very close to Venus. Even on the 12th, the view will be worthwhile.
Asteroid (545394) Rossetter = 2011 HH45 Earlier Designation.
I am proud to announce that TAAA member David Rossetter has been honored by the International Astronomical Union by having minor planet 545394 officially named Rossetter.
Discovery information: 2008-11-02 / T. Glinos, D. H. Levy * / Vail-Jarnac / G92. Asteroid Rossetter
David Rossetter (b. 1956) is an experienced visual observer of the night sky. His vast experience, particularly with the summer sky, has enhanced many years of the Adirondack Astronomy Retreat in New York state and he has inspired hundreds of people to enjoy the sky.
David Levy awarding the “Asteroid Rossetter” certificate to David Rossetter at CAC.
Venus is slowly increasing its visibility at dusk, starting to get visible at 20 degrees altitude. At the summer solstice it passes by Pollux at 5 degrees distance.
Mars is also visible in the evening but setting much later than Venus. The distance between both planets decreases from 25 to 8 degrees during June. On July 12, Venus will pass Mars quite closely.
Jupiter and Saturn rise just before midnight and are transiting during dawn almost 45 degrees high. They remain separated by 20 degrees.
At the end of June, Mercury starts its morning apparition.
Vesta is still an easy binocular object in Leo during the early evening.
On July 10, there is an annular Solar Eclipse visible in eastern Canada moving over the North Pole. The next day, the thin crescent Moon will be visible at dusk just below Venus.
The messages from the TAAAA president have appeared in various forms over the years. They have appeared in the Desert Skies publications, in the TAAA Monthly Bulletin, and now appear in the revamped monthly Desert Skies TAAA Bulletin. For a period of TAAA history, the Notes were send as a stand alone message to members from 2018 to 2021. Those communications with summaries of the work of the TAAA board and important monthly accomplishments by the organization are listed below.
Just one day after the Earth passed its perihelion, the closest point to the Sun in its orbit, the American Astronomical Society was having its annual meeting online, the United States Congress was validating the results of the 2020 national election, and Wendee and I were settling in for a civics lesson about the way the United States Government works. The day did not turn out as we expected.
Shortly before noon, as we watched our television set a news ticker appeared. It announced that two buildings in the Library of Congress (LC), the James Madison, and quickly afterwards the Adams and Jefferson buildings, were being evacuated. That news sent an ugly chill through me. The LC is one of the finest libraries in the entire world. It contains more than 170 million books, of which more than thirty are books I wrote entirely or those for which I penned the foreword. It also includes all of the more than two hundred “Star Trails” columns I wrote for Sky and Telescope magazine between 1988 and 2008, and dozens more I wrote for other magazines and journals. Only the British library, with over 200 million books, is larger.
This evacuation was quite personal for me. A few minutes later, when the entire Capitol complex was stormed, it was personal for all of us. All of us had reactions to this, but in addition to the feelings I had, I felt a major conern for the library.
How many books does it take to make a library? When I was a child in 1963, a teacher told me his answer: “two books.” To me, a library– any library– is every bit as priceless as a dark sky. The wisdom of the ages is contained in each library- from the LC to a child’s collection. I have never gone into a library without feeling better when I exited. The idea that this magnificent collection was threatened that day was terrifying.
I have read many books over my lifetime, from The Cat in the Hat to my boxed set of Lord of the the Rings. One small treasure, Jene Lyon’s Golden book Our Sun and the Worlds Around It, opened a door to a lifetime of stargazing. (That gem, by the way, also lives in the LC). What is more, I have never encountered a really bad book. When an author places her or his thoughts on paper in a book, that book immortalizes those thoughts.
I hope that Capitol Hill and the Library of Congress are never threatened again. They belong to we the people, and stand beautifully in Washington, D.C. to govern us, teach us, and encourage us to follow our dreams and reach for the stars.
Mercury and Venus are visible low in the west at dusk. Mercury is almost 10 degrees higher than Venus and easier to see. After mid-month. their separation decreases and Venus appears far brighter than Mercury. Mercury is visible naked eye until the 26th.
On the 28th, as Mercury is stationary, Venus passes by at only half a degree distance. In a telescope, their two disks match in size, but Venus is 300 times brighter and 98 % illuminated, Mercury only 13 % illuminated.
Mars is still an early evening planet, wandering through Gemini.
Jupiter rises before 2 am and comes about 30 degrees high during dawn. It is separated from Saturn by about 18 degrees.
Saturn rises before 2 am and comes about 30 degrees high during dawn. It is separated from Jupiter by about 18 degrees.
Vesta is still 7th magnitude in Leo, an easy object for binoculars.
During the morning of the 26th, the moon has its first total eclipse in two years. Totality is only 18 minutes long, just barely getting fully into the Earth’s umbra, from 4:10 to 4:28, just as dawn starts. The setting moon partially eclipsed around 5:25 should be beautiful.
The moon is only a degree from Venus on the evening of the 12th. Venus is easier to find than the moon since the moon is only 1 % illuminated, Venus is essentially full. If it is clear in the west, the moon will be just barely visible naked eye. Three days later, the moon will be almost as close to Mars.
Come join us for a presentation from the fundamentals of amateur astronomy. Learn your way around the night sky to add to your observing enjoyment. Meetings are on the second Thursday of each month.
Contact: Connor Justice
Email: fundamentals[at]tucsonastronomy.org
Constellation of the Month:
Fornax
Presenter: Doug Smith
Doug Smith will be discussing Fornax as the constellation of the month.
Main Presentation:
NGC 2000.0: The Complete New General Catalogue
Presenter: Connor Justice
Our main topic will be on the NGC catalog by Connor Justice.
From Google Books: “This essential amateur astronomer’s reference is an updated and expanded edition of J. L. E. Dreyer’s famous New General Catalogue, providing visual data and notes for 13,226 deep-sky objects.”
AFSIG monthly meetings will be held online, starting at 6:30 P.M. The presentation is open to the general public. To view the meeting, please visithttps://www.facebook.com/TucsonAstronomy
Constellation of the Month:
None
Presenter: None
No constellation of month.
Main Presentation:
Research Results from the Professional Astronomy Community
Presenter: to be determined
This month’s main topic will be recapping several research results from the professional astronomy community that will be covering new discoveries about planetary formation, supernovas, as well as Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus.
AFSIG monthly meetings will be held online, starting at 6:30 P.M. The presentation is open to the general public. To view the meeting, please visithttps://www.facebook.com/TucsonAstronomy
Constellation of the Month:
Hydrus and Phonix
Presenter: David Evans
David Evans will be presenting Hydrus (not to be confused with Hydra) and Phonix for the constellation of the month.
Main Presentation:
Mercury
Presenter: Doug Smith
Doug Smith will be wrapping up our slate of presentations on the planets with a talk on Mercury.
TAAA’s next general member meeting will be held on Friday, August 6, 2021, and available online. The Main Presentation starts at 6:30 P.M and is open to the public. A Members Only Meeting will follow. Non-members may attend the Main Presentation via Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TucsonAstronomy/. Members should attend the meeting via Zoom.
6:30 pm – Main Presentation
Title: Preparing for Artemis: Understanding the Moon’s most important resource
Presentation:Dr. Casey Honniball, from Goddard Space Flight Center is featured in this pre-recorded presentation about NASA’s Artemis program given to the Night Sky Network in May 2021. NASA’s Artemis program will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon. Innovative technologies will allow the Artemis crew to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. A sustainable presence on the lunar surface requires in-depth knowledge of the Moon’s available resources. Perhaps the most important of these is water. In preparation for Artemis, the lunar water cycle is being studied to understand the source, transport and retention of water across the Moon. Dr. Honniball will discuss how we study water on the Moon from Earth-based observatories and how water may be used in future Artemis missions.
Presenter: Dr. Casey Honniball is a research fellow in the NASA Postdoctoral Program at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Her current research focuses on characterizing water on the Moon and testing field portable instruments for use by astronauts during an extravehicular activity on planetary surfaces. She earned her Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Science from the University of Hawaii in 2019. Recently Dr. Honniball and her team announced the direct detection of water molecules on a sunlit portion of the Moon using the air-borne telescope SOFIA. Since then, she has made numerous media and outreach appearances to talk about lunar water.
