macpuzlBy Chuck McPartlin
The International Space Station will be making some bright visible passes through our evening skies in the first week of June, June Gloom permitting. Its orbit may change from time to time, so to get the latest and most complete predictions, visit Heavens Above.
On Tuesday, June 1, the ISS will have its brightest pass of this sequence, rising at 9:54 PM PDT in the NW between Auriga and Gemini, cruise through the dim constellations Lynx, Leo Minor, Canes Venatici, and Coma Berenices before vanishing in the Earth’s shadow high overhead near bright orange Arcturus at 9:57 PM.
On Wednesday, it will start in the NW at 9:07 PM near Capella, go along the bowl of the Little Dipper asterism, along the upper side of the Keystone asterism in Hercules, and fade out in the ESE in Ophiuchus at 9:12 PM.
Thursday’s pass will rise at 9:56 PM in the WNW by Gemini and Mars, and trace much of the length of dim Hydra before disappearing in the SW at 9:59 PM as it reaches Crater.
On Friday, the station will rise at 9:09 PM in the WNW, pass above brilliant Venus and dim Mars, then across Gemini and Cancer to go below Regulus and through Corvus to set in Centaurus in the SSE at 9:14 PM.
The last pass of this sequence will be on Sunday, when the ISS will appear at 9:13 PM in the WSW to take a low path under the length of Hydra to set in the SW at 9:15 PM.
The ISS will transition into our morning sky for the last week of June, and be back in our evening sky by the second week of July.
June will be a quiet month for us for sky events as we transition toward the summer sky. It’s still good galaxy hunting time, but the globular clusters and nebulae of summer will be starting to climb up in the east.
On June 17, asteroid 4 Vesta, the second largest asteroid, will be at its brightest for the year at 7th magnitude, visible in binoculars.
At 8:32 PM PDT on Sunday, June 20, summer will officially arrive with the solstice.
Mars will be in the Beehive Cluster (M44) on June 23, and for the next two evenings Venus will be forming a nice horizontal line with Castor and Pollux in the west after sunset.
