Astronomy events to look out for the month of June

AccuWeather

Chris Palma, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State Eberly College of Science, shares the top astronomy events to watch this June from the Strawberry Moon to the summer solstice.

Transcript

00:00Well, we jumped into June, and June brings longer days and some great astronomy events to watch for in the night sky.

00:07Joining us again is Professor Chris Palma, astronomy and astrophysics professor at Penn State's Elberle College of Science.

00:15We always look forward to your monthly visit.

00:18Good to have you.

00:20Thank you. I'm glad to be back.

00:22Oh, and by the way, I've opened up my box to get the telescope out, so we're getting close, Chris.

00:29We're getting close. Excellent.

00:31Huge progress. Huge project. All right, so maybe you can catch some of these.

00:35June, Chris, June's full moon is the Strawberry Moon.

00:39Where does that name come from, and when can we see it?

00:42So that moon is going to be overnight between June 10th and June 11th.

00:48All of these names are often from indigenous people, so I think that they're from northeastern tribes,

00:56and it apparently has to do with the strawberry harvest season being a short time in June.

01:02But, interestingly, this moon, where the sun is very high in the sky, the moon is actually going to be very low in the sky.

01:09So there's a chance it will actually look a little bit reddish or pink, and so that may also be part of the origin of the name.

01:16Love it.

01:17All right, the summer solstice is June 20th.

01:20What happens astronomically, and how does it affect stargazing?

01:26With the solstice, if you picture the sun getting higher and higher and higher,

01:31and then it basically comes to a stop before it starts getting lower and lower and lower,

01:35the solstice is the moment when the sun is highest in the sky at noon.

01:40And so what that means, we're getting ready for those really late sunsets and really early sunrises,

01:47so we're only going to get about eight hours of nighttime.

01:51So it limits your stargazing, but we still have eight hours of nighttime,

01:55but we'll have those long, warm days to look forward to.

01:58That's a good perspective.

02:00I didn't think about that.

02:00All right, World Asteroid Day.

02:03This doesn't sound good, by the way.

02:04Both on June 30th.

02:06What's the story behind it?

02:07Yeah, so World Asteroid Day is really interesting

02:11because you've probably heard those occasional things in the news.

02:15Hey, astronomers have found an asteroid that's potentially hazardous.

02:19It's going to pass closer to us than the moon.

02:22And, you know, we don't want to alarm anybody,

02:24but at the same time, we want to make sure that we're aware,

02:28is there anything really hazardous out there?

02:30And so this is just to call attention to that, right?

02:34That we need to be not just in the U.S., but worldwide.

02:38We need to be paying attention to these.

02:40We need to be studying them, finding them, documenting them,

02:43and really tracking them to make sure that none of them will, in fact, hit the Earth.

02:47And so that's what this is about,

02:48is raising awareness of these potentially dangerous asteroids,

02:52because if we find one, then we can do our best to see what we can do

02:55to protect ourselves from it.

02:57Just don't tell me about it, Chris.

02:59Ignorance is bliss from my standpoint.

03:00All right, with nightfall coming late in June, well, isn't it?

03:04It's true, because then if you tell him that he's going to bother me,

03:07and it's just a whole process.

03:09With nightfall coming late in June,

03:12is summer still a good time for stargazing?

03:15Certainly from a temperature perspective, it is.

03:18Any advice for beginners?

03:21Yeah, let's start really with beginners.

03:24How about looking for the Big Dipper?

03:26And so if you've never really spent a lot of time out with the stars,

03:29just try to find the Big Dipper.

03:32It's usually pretty easy.

03:34And the reason I say start there is that helps you find north.

03:38And then once you feel like you've found the Big Dipper and you can find north,

03:41just turn around, and now you're facing south.

03:44And then high in the southern sky,

03:46I would recommend looking for what's called the Summer Triangle.

03:49Three of the brightest stars in the sky make a nice big triangle,

03:54including Vega, Altair, and Deneb.

03:57So just start trying to find those and learn the names of the really bright,

04:02interesting stars that you can see any night in June, July, and August.

04:07All right, I have a new task, because I can always find the Big Dipper,

04:09and you feel so cool, like so much smarter than everyone else.

04:12But everyone can find it.

04:13But I'm going to turn around.

04:14I'm going to try to find the triangle.

04:15Very cool.

04:16All right, Chris Palma, astronomy and astrophysics professor

04:19at Penn State's Eberle College of Science.

04:21Thank you for joining us on AccuWeather Early.

04:23And Chris, we are?

04:25Penn State.

04:27You're darn right we are.

04:28All right, always learn something.

Category

Transcript

Recommended