See A Jaw-Dropping Crescent Moon, 50 Meteors And Hour And Our Billion-Star Milky Way: What You Can See In The Night Sky This Week

Science See A Jaw-Dropping Crescent Moon, 50 Meteors And Hour And Our Billion-Star Milky Way: What You Can See In The Night Sky This Week Jamie Carter Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I inspire people to go stargazing, watch the Moon, enjoy the night sky New! Follow this author to improve your content experience. Got it! Jun 26, 2022, 08:00pm EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin A crescent moon sets behind the Statue of Liberty on December 17, 2020 in New York City.

(Photo by . . .

[+] Gary Hershorn/Getty Images) Getty Images Each Monday I pick out the northern hemisphere’s celestial highlights (mid-northern latitudes) for the week ahead, but be sure to check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, astronomy, eclipses and more. What To See In The Night Sky This Week: June 27-July 3, 2022 It’s not easy going stargazing in summer at this time of year in the northern hemisphere. The nights are just so short.

The best reason to stay up late and go somewhere dark is the sight of the spiral arms of our Milky Way galaxy arcing across the night sky. Look to the southeast and south for that this month—and this week in particular, which will be largely moonless. When our satellite does emerge from its New Moon conjunction with the Sun expect lush views of a slender crescent Moon.

Who said summer was no good for stargazing? Monday, June 27, 2022: Boötids meteor shower and a crescent Moon meets Mercury Stellarium Monday, June 27, 2022: Boötids meteor shower and a crescent Moon meets Mercury The June Boötids meteor shower—occasionally called the June Draconids or Boötid-Draconids meteor shower—runs annually between June 22 and July 2, but peaks in the early hours of June 27, 2020. If you are out stargazing late tonight keep an eye out for the 50 or so “shooting stars” per hour expected. The shower’s radiant point—the apparent source of the shooting stars—is the constellation of Boötes.

MORE FOR YOU New Research Finds A Connection Between Domestic Violence And These Two Personality Disorders This Scientist Helps Andean Forests And Ecuador’s Women In STEM Exceptional Fossil Preservation Suggests That Discovering Dinosaur DNA May Not Be Impossible If you’re still up before dawn you might just catch the planet Mercury just 3. 9º from an incredibly slender 2. 6% crescent Moon, but be very careful if you use binoculars to help you because the rising Sun is NOT something you want in your field of view.

Tuesday, June 30, 2022: A super-slim crescent Moon and ‘Asteroid Day’ Today is Asteroid Day . With any luck there won’t be anything to see hurtling towards ( or even smashing into ) our planet, but it’s a good chance to consider the threat posed to Earth of incoming space rocks. What’s really going to change everything is the Vera Rubin Observatory, which from 2022 will deploy a wide-angle camera to map the night sky in real-time —and identify many thousands of hitherto unfound asteroids.

Friday, July 1, 2022: Earthshine on a crescent Moon and the Beehive Cluster Stellarium Friday, July 1, 2022: ‘Earthshine’ on a crescent Moon You should get a much clearer view of a crescent Moon today. Now 8% illuminated, in a clear sky it will be a stunning sight, not least because you’ll be able to see sunlight being reflected onto the Moon by the Earth as “Earthshine” or “planet-shine. ” It’s a subtle sight, but once seen cannot be unseen; look at the Moon’s darkened limb with your eyes, or better still, with a pair of binoculars, to appreciate this fine sight.

As a bonus it will be just 3. 5° from the Beehive Cluster, though you’ll need a pair of binoculars to see its 30 or so easily visible stars. Saturday, July 2, 2022: Earthshine on a crescent Moon close to Regulus Stellarium Saturday, July 2, 2022: ‘Earthshine’ on a crescent Moon and Regulus Tonight just after sunset look west for a 14% crescent Moon, once again displaying Earthshine.

The stars around it will be those of the “sickle” in the constellation of Leo. The brightest, about 5º left of the Moon, will be Leo’s brightest star, Regulus. It’s one of the brightest stars in the night sky and about 78 light-years distant.

Noctilucent clouds over Northamptonshire, UK. Taken 17 June 2009. Noctilucent clouds, are tenuous .

. . [+] cloud-like phenomena that are the ‘ragged-edge’ of a much brighter and pervasive polar cloud layer called polar mesospheric clouds in the upper atmosphere, visible in a deep twilight.

They are made of crystals of water ice. (Photo by Jamie Cooper/SSPL/Getty Images) SSPL via Getty Images Object of the week: noctilucent clouds This time of year the twilight seems to last forever at northerly latitudes so consider looking for a “ghostly” display of noctilucent or “night shining” clouds (NLCs). At their best in northern twilight skies during June and July (at latitudes between 50° and 70° north and south of the equator), NLCs are very delicate high altitude clouds of icy dust that form about 50 miles/80 kilometres up.

Because the Sun is never too far below the horizon at these latitudes they get subtly lit up for a short time. They’re best seen with the naked eye or a pair of binoculars. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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