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A closer look at the June sky

DR. ROLLY CHIASSON

Hello, Sky Friends, and welcome those who follow the sky with me in this column.

So, what shall we talk about this month? Russell Wangersky wrote “The band of salmon with a band of deeper blue beneath it.” This is a beautiful description of a sky phenomenon which we probably see many times and yet do not recognize what we see. We need a clear sky, and an open horizon. We can look at either sunrise or sunset. So, what are we seeing?

The blue band is, believe it or not, the shadow that our own earth casts on its atmosphere. The sun needs to be down and yet for twilight to still be quite bright — often referred to as civil twilight.

The shadow is also called the dark segment. It can be greyish-blue to dark blue.

The higher we are, the better we will see this. We can watch the shadow rise as the sun sets further, or set, as the sun rises pre-dawn in the morning. Now, the band of salmon, or actually a shade of pink. This is called the “Belt of Venus” or occasionally “Girdle of Venus,” although it has nothing to do with the planet Venus, but presumably rather comes from the gods.

The band can actually seem to be pink, or orange, or even a lighter purple. There is no distinct line between the belt and the shadow. Rather, they seem to meld into each other. The Belt is part of the earth’s atmosphere which is illuminated by the setting or rising sun from below the horizon. The colour is caused by the red light of the setting or rising sun illuminating small particles in the lower atmosphere. So, look up at dusk or dawn, enjoy the beauty and at the same time, wonder at what you now know you are observing — Earth’s own shadow.

Now, what is in the sky for you this month?

As always, let’s review our visible planets first.

In the night sky, if we start at dusk, we find Venus and Mars in our sky just after sunset. By one hour after sunset, Venus, which is quite bright, will be seen low and in the west-northwest, while Mars will be less bright, much higher and to Venus’ left in the west to west-northwest. While Venus will climb higher, both planets remain in these directions for much of June. Of particular interest, the New Moon is June 10 and, on June 11, we can view the moon as a tiny crescent, close to Venus. Try to view this as soon after sunset as you can, as they are setting and getting more difficult to view. Binos may help. Then on June 22 and 23, Mars is inside a cluster of stars, an area which may just look like a little fog. This is called the Beehive Cluster. For the morning sky: By midnight, we should be able to view Saturn first and, an hour later, Jupiter, rising in the east, although they will be better seen in the south as the pre-dawn hour passes. As always, Jupiter is much brighter than Saturn.

As we reach the last week of the month, you can watch for Mercury, quite low in the East.

For the casual viewer, that is about it for this month.

Remember: New Moon — June 11

Full Moon — June 24

See you next month.

Your Night Sky Guy,

Dr. Rolly Chiasson

OBITUARIES | ENVIRONMENT

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2021-06-09T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-09T07:00:00.0000000Z

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