This week is a great opportunity to spot Lacus Mortis, the Lake of Death, on the lunar surface. Find out how you can see these for yourself as well as our usual stargazing highlights in this week’s podcast guide, Star Diary, 10 to 16 June 2024.
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Chris Bramley: Hello and welcome to Star Diary, the podcast from the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine. You can subscribe to the digital edition of the magazine by visiting iTunes, Google Play, or Apple News, or to the print edition by visiting skyatnightmagazine.com.
Ezzy Pearson: Greetings listeners. And welcome to Star Diary, a weekly guide to the best things to see in the northern hemisphere’s night sky. As we are based here in the UK, all times are in BST. In this episode, we’ll be covering the coming week from 10 to 16 June. I’m features editor Ezzy Pearson, and I’m joined this week by astronomy writer Katrin Raynor.
Hello, Katrin.
Katrin Raynor: Hi, Ezzy.
Ezzy: So, Katrin, what do we have to look forward to this week?
Listen to last week’s episode – Star Diary: Two comets streak across the sky (3 to 9 June 2024)
Katrin: Well, we are just 10 days away from the summer solstice on 20 June, when the Sun reaches its most northerly point in the sky. So at this time of year, the Sun won’t be setting until much later, and the longer nights make observing pretty tricky.
It is a quiet week ahead, but remember we do have noctilucent cloud season to enjoy, and now is the perfect time to view a popular summer asterism.
So, as I always do, start the week off with the Moon. The Moon is waxing all week and it reaches full Moon the following week on 22 June. So on 6 June we have a new Moon, that rhymes. And on 10 June it rises in the east around 8:15 in the morning and will rise later and set later as the week goes on.
So June’s top lunar feature to observe this month is Lacus Mortis, the Lake of Death. It’s visible five days after New Moon, which was on 6th. So on the nights 11 and 12th, look up to the Moon and have a good explore of this lunar lake.
Ezzy: It’s a nice cheery one. It’s not quite the Sea of Rainbows, is it?
Katrin: Yeah, it’s more like something you should be looking at on Halloween.
Ezzy: Sea of Rainbows, Sea of Tranquillity, Lake of Death.
Katrin: Death, yeah. It sounds like a good name for like a heavy metal band or something, doesn’t it?
Ezzy: That is actually… If anybody out there is looking for a band name, there you go, we’ve got one for you.
Lacus Mortis and their first album, Lake of Death.
Katrin: Yeah.
On the nights of 11 and 12, look up to the Moon and have a good explore of this lunar lake. It’s an unusually shaped lunar lake. It’s 150km in diameter and is well worth pointing your binoculars or telescope at.
And check out the Moonwatch section in this month’s issue of the Sky at Night Magazine for more details.
Ezzy: Yes, we always have a look at what’s the best things to see on the Moon this particular month. So always have a look in there to get even more in depth look at the Moon with some helpful charts and photographs as well to help you find your way around.
Katrin: On 16 June, the 75% lit Moon is very close to Spica, the brightest star on the constellation of Virgo.
So around 10:30pm, Spica will be positioned just to the right of the Moon. Another fantastic opportunity for astrophotographers to capture a magical moment. And whilst you’re out on 16th, if you’ve got binoculars or a telescope to hand, take a look at the Plato Crater on the Moon. It’s named after the great philosopher of ancient Greece.
And I think this is actually one of my favourite craters to view. It looks so perfectly smooth in its interior. And every time I look at it it’s like, when it’s been snowing and you want to be the first person to just step outside in the snow and make that footprint and with Plato I just want to reach up and touch it and kind of like just put a fingerprint on the surface.
So historically, it was referred to as the Greater Black Lake, and you can see why, because it looks like it is filled with water that is perfectly still, and it’s practically featureless. So Plato lies in the region between Mare Imbrium and Mare Frigoris, not far from the Moon’s terminator.
Solar System wise, usual story with the planets this week, isn’t much happening.
I think we’re getting quite fed up of repeating this information now. Everything’s…. All the planetary actions in the morning sky.
Ezzy: It is going to pick up. The planets are going to pick up in the second half of the year, so they will be back. They’re just a bit boring right now.
Katrin: Like The Terminator. They’ll be back.
On 14 June, Mercury will be at superior conjunction, making it one of the best planets to see in the evening sky, but as always it will be positioned very close to the Sun. If you’re going to go outside and try and spot Mercury, exercise caution as usual.
We do still have a couple of comets to look for. Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan is going to be a real challenge to observe all week as we approach summer solstice. It’s located low in the western horizon, but due to its magnitude and the lighter nights, it’s going to be tricky to locate or even observe any detail at all. The Moon will also be close to the comet, so we’ll add more unwelcome brightness to the mix.
Ezzy: It’s one of those… like, the Moon might help you find it. Work out where it is on the night sky, but then it’s gonna just completely bleach it out and that’s like, hmm?
Katrin: Yeah, it’s just, as we mentioned last week: the Moon, the approaching summer solstice. Summer can be, tricky. A tricky time to see anything really. But hopefully, like we said, you know, towards the end of the year now, we should be able to see the comet. Hopefully with our naked eyes, so we’ll just have to be patient and wait till then.
So June’s Sky Guide Challenge in the Sky at Night magazine this month does provide you with some really handy tips to get the best out of your comet observing.
Comet 13P Olbers can be located between Gemini and Auriga this week and is at magnitude of around +7.6, low in the northwestern sky, so again another challenge for everyone out there.
And asteroid wise, Vesta can still be observed near the constellation Gemini all week as well. Pallas between Hercules and Corona Borealis, although it is now located slightly closer to Corona Borealis. Juno can be located in the western sky, close to the constellation of Leo.
And you and I just spoke recently, Ezzy, you know, we were talking about Mary’s advice on her Star Diary episodes about sketching the asteroids, tracking their movements, and I think it’d be really great if we could see some of those from our listeners.
Ezzy: Absolutely, if people were listening back in May, Mary was talking about either photographs or sketches to help you track the movements of the asteroids over the night sky. If anybody has done that, we would absolutely love to see them. Please do send them in to contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com. That’s contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com. We would love to see any and all pictures that you’ve taken after being inspired by Star Diary.
Katrin: Yeah, I’d be particularly interested to see some sketches. I think that would be lovely to see. I mean, you could even make a flip book, couldn’t you? That you used to get when you were in school with the top corners.
That would be quite cool.
Ezzy: Yeah. One way to do it, like, instead of having a blink comparator, which is how most people how astronomers used to look for asteroids was by rapidly changing between two plates, just use a flip book instead.
Katrin: Yeah. So we know at this time of year, the sky is a lot lighter and some fainter stars are lost to the brightness.
However, throughout the summer, the sky is dominated by three particularly bright stars. So we have Vega, Deneb, and Altair and these three make up the magnificent asterism of the Summer Triangle. It’s not a constellation at all but a pattern of stars that are within three different constellations. So Vega is in Lyra the Harp, Deneb is found in Cygnus the Swan, and Altair in Aquila the Eagle.
And when I was looking up the Summer Triangle, I was actually reading Patrick Moore’s article, which is on the Sky at Night magazine’s website. And yeah, it was nice to see that he coined the name the Summer Triangle and the name stuck.
Ezzy: You can be pretty sure that if it’s called the Summer Triangle, it probably looks like what it’s called.
Katrin: It does, yes.
Ezzy: If you’ve got three stars in it, it’s a triangle. No squinting to see a crab here.
Katrin: Yes! Yeah, a big triangle, like you said, it’s easier to spot than some things in the night sky.
So Vega appears almost overhead throughout the summer in the UK, so it will be easy to spot. And it’s a good starting point to hop to the other two stars.
So from Vega, cast your eyes diagonally downwards to the right to find Altair, and from Altair, locate Deneb and Cygnus slightly upwards and to the left. So yeah, you’ve found the Summer Triangle. You can just enjoy looking at that. And Delphinus, one of my favourite constellations, sits just below the Triangle.
I love this constellation because it does look like a tiny little dolphin in the night sky. It’s lovely.
Ezzy: Thank you very much for taking us through all of that, Katrin. And for our listeners at home, if you would like to get even more stargazing tips, please do subscribe to the podcast. We’ll be back here next week with even more stargazing highlights.
And so to summarise that week again. The summer solstice is just 10 days away, meaning the night sky will never really get fully dark, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still lots of things you can see.
Keep an eye out for noctilucent clouds that will rise just before sunrise and just after sunset. We have a new Moon on 6 June.
The moon is waxing all week and on the nights of 11 and 12th, check out Lacus Mortis, the Sea of Death. More details about how to see that can be found in the Moonwatch section of the magazine.
On 16th, the Moon is very close to Spica in the night sky as well.
You also might want to take a look at the Plato crater on the Moon with your telescopes or binoculars.
In terms of planets, not much is really happening. Mercury will be at superior conjunction on 14th though.
In terms of comets, we have Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which is going to be a real challenge to see because of its position in the sky, its high magnitude and also the lighter summer nights as well.
Comet 13P Olbers can also be located between Gemini and Auriga all this week.
Vesta can still be observed near the constellation of Gemini all week, and Pallas is between Hercules and Corona Borealis, whilst Juno will be located in the western sky, close to the constellation of Leo.
And finally, why not take this opportunity to take a look at the Summer Triangle, an asterism comprising three of the summer’s brightest stars, Deneb, Alta and Vega. Delphinus, the dolphin constellation, should be just below the triangle as well.
So lots of things to be getting on with and hopefully we will see you all back here next week for even more stargazing tips. Until then, goodbye!
If you want to find out even more spectacular sights that will be gracing the night sky this month, be sure to pick up a copy of BBC Sky at Night Magazine, where we have a 16 page pull out Sky Guide with a full overview of everything worth looking up for throughout the whole month. Whether you like to look at the Moon, the planets, or the deep sky.
Whether you use binoculars, telescopes or neither, our Sky Guide has got you covered. With detailed star charts to help you track your way across the night sky. From all of us here at BBC Sky at Night Magazine, goodbye.
Chris: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Star Diary podcast. From the makers of BBC Sky at Night Magazine, which was edited by Lewis Dobbs.
For more of our podcasts, visit our website at skyatnightmagazine.com/podcasts or head to Spotify, iTunes, or your favourite podcast player.