Planetary Parade In June 

The night skies of this month would enable skygazers to astound the amazing array of planets before daybreak. Planet Mercury and Venus would be too close to the sun to be marvelled at this month. It would be marching across the tantalising constellations Taurus (bull) and Gemini (twins) high in the sky during the daytime. The red planet Mars could be marked in the eastern sky before sunup. It would be mingling with the stars of the southern section of the constellation Aries (ram) and those sketching the V-pattern of the constellation Pisces (fish). 

The planet Jupiter could be perceived shortly before dawn in the eastern sky. It would be located in the northern sector of the constellation Taurus. The astonishing star Aldebaran would be sparkling below Jupiter. It would be cooler than the sun, with a scorching surface temperature of just 3900 Celsius. 

Its radius would be solely 45 times that of the sun but be over 400 times as luminous. It would be simply 65 light-years away. 

The ringed planet Saturn could be scrutinised serenely in the eastern sky from the late hours of the night until sunrise. It would be soaring in the sky above the southeastern horizon. It would be spotted among the stars flickering fabulously on the northeastern flank of the constellation Aquarius (water bearer). The far-flung planet Uranus would be unseen this month. It would be climbing the sky during the day in the constellation Taurus. The distant planet Neptune could be noticed in the eastern sky after midnight until the early hours above the southeastern horizon. It could be admired below the captivating circlet-asterism of the constellation Pisces. It would be gleaming gloriously between Mars to its east and Saturn towards its west.

The new moon would befall on June 6, while the full moon would fascinate moon-lovers on June 22 with its cold, charming countenance. It has been popularly known as the strawberry moon because during this time of the year, the ripening fruits would be gathered. It would coincide with the peak of the strawberry harvesting season. China’s lunar probe Chang'e-6 has landed flawlessly in the immense South Pole-Aitken Basin recently to collect lunar samples from and conduct experiments on the rarely explored far side of the moon. The craft would then lift off with valuable cargo for its trek back home. 

The summer solstice will be here for us on Friday, June 21, 2024, at 02:35 AM local time. On this day of mid-summer, the North Pole of the earth would be slanted towards the Sun, which would have arrived at its northernmost position in the sky and be hovering directly over the Tropic of Cancer at circa 23.44 degrees north latitude. It would herald the first longest day of summer (summer solstice) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first shortest day of winter (winter solstice) in the Southern Hemisphere. 

This is the day when the sun's annual journey through the twelve constellations of the zodiac will carry it to its most northerly site in the sky, currently in the constellation Taurus. At the moment of solstice, the sun would appear overhead and eminently elevated in the sky at noon. Solstices occur because the axis of the earth's spin (its polar axis) has been tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees to the plane of its orbit around the Sun. The direction of the earth's twirl axis has been fixed in space as it would circle around the sun, while the earth's sight line to the sun would move through the twelve constellations of the zodiac. 

As a result, sometimes the earth's North Pole would be inclined towards the Sun (in June), and at other times it would lean away from it (in December), thus giving rise to the earth's seasons. The earth would revolve around the sun once every 365.242 days, during which the cycle of solstices and equinoxes (equal days and nights) and consequently all of the earth's seasons would repeat.

On June 3, Arcane asteroid 43 Ariadne could be well-adored during its opposition. It could be chased through good telescopes as a shiny speck of light drifting through the confounding constellation Ophiuchus (serpent bearer alias Bhujakdhari). It would fly aloft in the sky around midnight local time in the southwestern sky and slowly descend towards the horizon. 

At the same time as Ariadne’s opposition, it would make its tightest tryst with the earth, purportedly as its perigee. On this occasion, 43 Ariadne would pass within 127.16 million kilometres of us. Its orbital period would be barely 1194.766 days. Its elongated dimension would fairly measure 95 by 60 by 50 kilometers. 

The 26-day-old waning crescent moon would be presumably ten percent illuminated. It was ascertained by English astronomer Norman Robert Pogson in 1857 and named after the legendary Greek heroine Ariadne. He had worked in India at the Madras observatory. Ophiuchus has been a lovely, large, rambling constellation depicted as a mysterious, mystical, strong man grasping a strikingly strange serpent. The interposition of his body would divide the snake constellation Serpens into two parts: Serpens Caput (head) and Serpens Cauda (tail). 

Ophiuchus would straddle the celestial equator, with the majority of its cosmic area lying in the southern hemisphere. Ophiuchus would be overhead in June, around midnight. The dramatically copious deep-sky objects and numerous bizarrely queer entities abound in Ophiuchus. Barnard's Star, as one of the nearest stars at exclusively 5.96 light-years away, along with effulgent stars Rasalhague at ostensibly 47 light-years away, Sabik, Cebalrai, and Marfik, and the odd recurrent novae-system RS Ophiuchi, constituting one huge red giant star accompanied by a white dwarf star at predominantly five thousand light-years away, would be dwelling in Ophiuchus. 

Furthermore, it would contain several bewildering globular star clusters, such as M9, M10, and M12, which would be glinting glamorously from dynamic distances of palpably 25.8, 14.3, and 16.44 thousand light-years, respectively, and whacky, graciously glistening colourful nebula IC 603–4604). 

The putative trio of scintillating stars in the Rho Ophiuchus cloud complex embedded around the region of curiously coruscating multiple star Rho Ophiuchi would be blazing them with humble hues. They would be possibly 400 to 440 light-years away.

The exotic Lagoon nebula residing in the teapot-resembling constellation Sagittarius (archer) could be appraised adequately below Ophiuchus in the evening sky. This colossal interstellar cloud would be perhaps 4100 light-years away. It had been identified by Italian astronomer Giovanni Hodierna in 1654. 

It would reach its highest point in the sky at around midnight local time on June 22. It would be visible normally between 09 PM and 03:09 AM after being accessible at around 08 PM, when it would be ascending to an adulating altitude above the southeastern horizon. It would then sink sadly below the southwestern horizon and be lost to dawn twilight.

The abstruse alignment of six planets could be manifested during the wee hours of the nights of June 3 and 4, 2024, from some places. They would queue quirkily in the eastern sky. Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus would be glimmering in one straight line. This phenomenon would be dubbed the peculiar parade of planets. Venus could be absent in the show, but the waning crescent moon would obviously be present in the bunch. 

Any number of planets from three to eight would concoct an alluring assemblage, which would transpire because the planets of our solar system would rush around the sun roughly on the flat plane called the ecliptic. So during early June, around an hour before sunrise, some planets would emerge in one uncurled sequence. 

While planets Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn would be bright enough to be relished with the naked eye, big planets Uranus and Neptune could be far and faint. 

For glimpsing them, visual aids such as binoculars or a telescope could be needed. In the future, we could witness such extraordinary events on 28 August 2024 and 18 January 2025, when six planets would perform their perplexing processions. But the spectacle of full planetary alignment would be offered weirdly on the evening of February 28, 2025, when all seven planets would beautifully bedazzle in the sky.

(The author is an academician at NAST and patron of Nepal Astronomical Society or NASO.)