Its official: summer began at 7:59 pm Friday, June 20. And summer is a great time for stargazing. Here are a few things to watch for.
For the next few weeks you can catch the latest sunsets of the year. The time of sunset drifts steadily later from winter to summer until just after the summer solstice when the late-ward drift halts and the days begin to get shorter again. The latest sunset of the year here in the Tri-cities area is 9:28 EDT.
Not so popular are the earliest sunrises of the year, which also take place around the summer solstice. The sun rises tomorrow at 6:05 am, giving us a total of almost fifteen-and-a-half hours of daylight.
Presently at dusk, the planets Saturn and Mars lie low in the west in the constellation Leo. Saturn and Mars will drift further westward as summer progresses, and will be out of the picture by mid September.
Mercury will make a brief appearance with Mars and Saturn in the western sky just after sunset during the first week of September. But the best opportunity to see Mercury is in the mornings around July 1 when the planet reaches what’s called greatest western elongation. At greatest western elongation, Mercury is about 22 degrees west of the sun. That’s right, west, which is why we will see it rise in the east in the early morning hours before sunrise.
Jupiter will dominate the sky this summer. Presently, Jupiter is low in the east after sunset, but as the season wears on, will rise earlier and earlier to be higher in the sky at dusk. Jupiter will be opposite the sun in the sky and high overhead at midnight by early July.
You can look forward to bright full moons on July 18, Aug. 16, and Sept. 15. And the darkest nights of the summer, the nights on which the moon is new, will be July 3, Aug. 1 and 30, and Sept. 29. The moon will be new twice in August, but there is no special name for this circumstance, as there is for the second full moon in a calendar month — a blue moon. Maybe you can make up a name for the moon on Aug. 30 this year.
The dark, new-moon nights of summer, are perfect for drinking in the Milky Way. Our view of the Milky Way is best on dark summer nights. The center of our galaxy and the brightest portion of the Milky Way lie towards the constellation Sagittarius. Look for Sagittarius low in the south late at night in August. Jupiter will be there too. If you look from a dark spot, you will see Jupiter, Sagittarius and the Milky Way stretching high overhead.
The solar system’s best fireworks display — the Perseid meteor shower — is always in mid August. This summer, the Perseids will peak on the evening of Aug. 12. Of course a dark sky is best for viewing shooting stars, so to get the best of the show, you’ll have to stay up late. The moon will set well after midnight. But what a night to pull an all-nighter: watch the bright, waxing gibbous moon set over the lake and then lay back to see the Milky Way and some bright shooting stars.
Summer ends with the beginning of autumn on Sept. 22.
