jjmonl 1506 3 col B - John J. McCarthy Observatory

June 2015

John J. McCarthy ObservatoryVolume 8, No. 6

Galactic Observer

Jeepers Creepers!Where'd You

Get ThosePeepers ?

Hubble: Nearly Blindat Birth, But at

25, still UnveilingSecrets of the

Universe

In celebration of Hubble'ssilver anniversary, NASA is

taking a fresh look at thePillars of Creation -

a star-forming region6,500 light years away

in the Eagle Nebula,with a towering plume

of dust stretching morethan a light year into the surrounding heavens.

For more on the Hubblespace telescope, go to

pages 3, 9 and 16. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and The

Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA)

http://www.mccarthyobservatory.org2 • June 2015

The John J. McCarthy ObservatoryNew Milford High School388 Danbury RoadNew Milford, CT 06776

Phone/Voice: (860) 210-4117Phone/Fax: (860) 354-1595www.mccarthyobservatory.org

Route

It is through their efforts that the McCarthy Observatoryhas established itself as a significant educational andrecreational resource within the western Connecticutcommunity.

Galactic ObserGalactic ObserGalactic ObserGalactic ObserGalactic ObservvvvverererererEditorial CommitteeEditorial CommitteeEditorial CommitteeEditorial CommitteeEditorial Committee

Managing EditorBill Cloutier

Production & DesignAllan Ostergren

Website DevelopmentMarc Polansky

Technical SupportBob Lambert

Dr. Parker Moreland

JJMO Staff

OUT THE WINDOW ON YOUR LEFT.................................... 4

SCHILLER AND HAINZEL .................................................. 4

SATURN ......................................................................... 5

FINAL APPROACH ........................................................... 6

4,000 SOLS .................................................................... 7

CERES .......................................................................... 8

MESSENGER FAREWELL ............................................ 9

25TH ANNIVERSARY ....................................................... 10

DRAGON LAUNCH ABORT TEST ....................................... 10

FALCON'S FIRST STAGE ATTEMPTED LANDING ON REENTRY 11

DEVELOPING A REUSABLE ROCKET .................................. 11

BLUE ORIGIN ................................................................ 11

BLUE SUNSET ................................................................ 11

SUMMER SOLSTICE ........................................................ 12

JUNE HISTORY .............................................................. 12

WOMEN IN SPACE .......................................................... 12

AN EXTRAORDINARY FEAT .............................................. 13

Jim JohnstoneCarly KleinSternBob LambertRoger MooreParker Moreland, PhDAllan OstergrenMarc PolanskyJoe PriviteraMonty RobsonDon RossGene SchillingKatie ShusdockJon WallacePaul WoodellAmy Ziffer

Steve AllisonSteve BaroneColin CampbellDennis CartolanoMike ChiarellaJeff ChodakBill CloutierCecilia DetrichDirk FeatherRandy FenderRandy FindenJohn GebauerElaine GreenTina HartzellTom Heydenburg

In This IssueSUNRISE AND SUNSET ...................................................... 13

SUMMER NIGHTS ........................................................... 14

ASTRONOMICAL AND HISTORICAL EVENTS ......................... 14

REFERENCES ON DISTANCES ............................................ 16

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION/IRIDIUM SATELLITES .......... 16

SOLAR ACTIVITY ........................................................... 16

COVER PHOTO .............................................................. 16

http://www.mccarthyobservatory.org June 2015 • 3

June Astronomy Calendar and SpaceExploration Almanac

Hubble Image of NGC 6637 (also known as Messier 69)Globular clusters are prime observing targets in the summer

as we look into the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy


“Out the Windowon Your Left”

IT’S BEEN OVER 40 years since weleft the last footprint on the dusty lunarsurface. Sadly, as a nation founded on

exploration and the conquest of newfrontiers, we appear to have lost our willto lead as a space-faring nation. But, whatif the average citizen had the means tovisit our only natural satellite; what wouldthey see out the window of theirspacecraft as they entered orbit aroundthe Moon? This column may providesome thoughts to ponder when planningyour visit (if only in your imagination).

Our spaceship of the imagina-tion passes over the cratered ruinsof the Moon’s limb in this month’simage. Southwest of Mare Nubium(Sea of Clouds), in an area knownas Terra Caloris (Land of Heat) on17th century lunar maps, lie theremnants of an ancient impact ba-sin, several small maria (basalticplains), and the Moon’s batteredhighlands.

Crater Schiller is easily identi-fied by its elongated proportions.With a length of 112 miles (180km) and a width of 44 miles (70km), Schiller is believed to havebeen created by a low angle impactthat produced a series of overlap-ping gouges. The floor of Schilleris obscured by a layer of relativelysmooth material, presumed to be

Lunar "lakes," "marshes" and "seas"are actually expansive, low-lying

plains formed by ancient lava flows

the fluidized ejecta from an impactthat created Mare Orientale to thewest; however, volcanism hasn’tbeen completely ruled out.

Crater Hainzel is the site of threeoverlapping impact craters, Hainzel,Hainzel A and Hainzel C, withHainzel the largest, oldest and leastdefined of the three. Hainzel A is theterraced crater to the north and mostcomplete, suggesting that it was cre-ated last since it breaches the outerwall of Hainzel C, the smaller andheavily shadowed crater. The slop-ing topography of Hainzel A sug-gests that, it too, may have beenformed by an oblique impact.

Nearby are two patches of mare,the smaller Lacus Timoris (Lake of

Fear) and larger Palus Epidemiarum(Marsh of Epidemics). LacusTimoris is confined and bounded bymountainous ridges, while PalusEpidemiarum extends its reach to thesouthwestern shore of Mare Nubiumto the north.

Emerging from the shadows isthe ghostly Schiller-Zucchius Basin,an ill-defined pre-Nectarian impactsite (estimated to have formed priorto the 3.92 billion year old impactthat created the Nectaris Basin). Re-construction of the basin’s rim(erased by later impacts and ejecta)suggests an outer diameter of 208miles (335 km). The best time toview this region is 3 to 4 days beforea Full Moon.

Schillerand

Hainzel


SaturnWhile the distance between the

Earth and Saturn is increasing, theringed planet is still well placed forevening observers in June. Asshown on the sky map below, Sat-urn can be found in the constella-tion Libra, just west of Scorpius.

Saturn’s axial tilt is almost 27°(as compared to Earth’s 23.5° orJupiter’s 3°). The axial tilt pro-duces seasons which last more than7 years, since it takes Saturn almost29½ years to complete an orbitaround the Sun. It was summer inthe southern hemisphere when theCassini spacecraft arrived in 2004with the planet’s north pole in per-petual darkness. Saturn’s Vernalequinox occurred in August 2009with both hemispheres experienc-ing equal amounts of sunlight. Atthe equinoxes, the rings appear al-most edge on. Since that time, ourview of the rings has improved. Atthe northern summer solstice inMay of 2017, the rings will be wideopen with the planet’s north polesunlit and tipped towards Earth.This year the ring tilt is 24.4°, fora view almost as good as it gets.

June 30th marks the 11th anni-versary of the arrival of theCassini spacecraft in the Satur-nian system. Its mission will endin 2017, with the spacecraft pass-ing through the gap between theplanet and its innermost ring onseveral orbits before taking a fi-

nal plunge into Saturn’s atmo-sphere, a campaign dubbed “TheGrand Finale.” The close encoun-ters will provide valuable data

on the ring’s composition, theplanet’s magnetic field and anyvariations in Saturn’s gravita-tional field.

Photo: Bill Cloutier

Graphic: Heavens-Above.com

Hubble images of Saturn taken from 1996 through 2000 (L to R). ImageCredit: R. G. French (Wellesley College) et al., NASA, ESA, and TheHubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)


Final Approach

NEW HORIZONS IS in thesecond of three “approach” phases as the

spacecraft prepares for its close en-counter with Pluto and Pluto’s five

moons on July 14th. The currentphase, which lasts until June 23rd,is focused on detecting additionalmoons or any debris in and aroundPluto that could pose a hazard tothe fast moving spacecraft (travel-ing at a speed of more than 31,000miles per hour (50,000 km/h)).

July 14th Timeline: NASA/JHUAPL

New Horizons' Position on June 14th with respect to Pluto. JPL'sSolar System Simulator http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/


4,000 Sols

The Mars Exploration Rover“Opportunity” landed on the plainsof Meridiani Planum on January 25,2004, three weeks after its twin rover,Spirit touched down in GusevCrater. Opportunity has been explor-ing Mars for more than 4,000 Mar-tian days or Sols.

In August 2011, after a nearly athree year trek from Victoria crater,Opportunity arrived at the rim ofthe 14-mile (22 km) diameterEndeavour crater. The crater isbelieved to date from Mars’Noachian Period, lasting between3.6 and 4.2 billion years ago, whenconditions on Mars are believed tohave been wetter and warmer. Sincearriving, Opportunity has been work-ing along the crater’s western rim.The rover is currently exploring anelongated crater called “Spirit of St.Louis,” located at the entrance of“Marathon Valley,” a gap in theEndeavour’s rim wall and a sitetargeted by orbiting spacecraft thathave detected the presence of clayminerals.

Spirit of St. Louis crater is ashallow depression, approximately110 feet (34 meters) long and 80feet (24 meters) wide. A rockspire at one end of the crater rises7 to 10 feet (2 to 3 meters) abovethe crater rim.

Curiosity's position (green star) imaged by the Mars Reconnaissance Rover on April18, just past its 10th kilometer and in its 957th Martian day (sol) on the planet's surface.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Rocky Spire in the Spirit of St. Louis crater. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.

Spirit of St. Louis crater. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.


CeresNASA’s Dawn spacecraft com-

pleted its first of four mappingorbits from a distance of 8,400 miles(13,500 km) in early May. With eachsuccessive orbit, the spacecraftmoves in closer to the dwarf planet.Dawn has since restarted its ionengines and is moving into itssecond orbit. It is expected to reachits new orbit on June 6th and willspend approximately three weeks atthe 2,700 mile (4,400 km) altitude.The final two orbits (at 900 miles or1,450 km and at 230 miles or 375 km)are planned for August through Octo-ber and December to mission end, re-spectively. At its lowest orbit, Dawnwill be circling Ceres once every 5½hours.

The image (right) includes one ofthe mysterious bright spots on theplanet, and was taken from a distanceof 8,400 miles (13,500 km) in earlyMay. The bright, reflective material

is possibly ice within the crater,although its source remains a mystery.

Launched in September of 2007.The spacecraft received a gravity as-sist from Mars in 2009 before its ren-

dezvous with the asteroid Vesta in 2011.It spent 14 months in orbit around Vestabetween 2011 and 2012 before mak-ing its way to Ceres, and will remain inorbit around Ceres at mission end.

MESSENGER FarewellThe MESSENGER spacecraft’s

mission came to an abrupt end when itimpacted the planet Mercury on April30th after running out of fuel. In the fouryears spent studying Mercury, thespacecraft completed more than 4,000orbits of the innermost planet and trans-mitted almost 300,000 detailed imagesback to Earth. MESSENGER’s impactcreated a new crater on the planet,estimated to be up to 52 feet across.

Mapping the surface of Mercurywas only one of many accomplish-ments. The spacecraft’s suite ofinstruments returned data on theplanet’s composition and geologicMercury’s magnetic field wasoff-set from the planet’s center, and con-firmed the presence of water ice withinthe permanently shadowed craters atthe planet’s poles. MESSENGER con-tinued to provide data and transmitimages on its final approach. The larg-est crater (below) is approximately1,100 feet (330 meters) across.

One of the Last Images Returned by MESSENGER Credit: NASA/JohnsHopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution ofWashington

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/

MPS/DLR/IDA


Hubble 25th Anniversary

The Hubble Space Telescopewas launched on April 24, 1990,carried to orbit in the payload bayof the space shuttle Discovery.After five servicing missions byfour different space shuttles, thetelescope is a much more capableinstrument than when it waslaunched 25 years ago. Since1990, Hubble has made morethan 1.2 million observations.During the last servicing missionin 2011, requiring five spacewalks, two new instruments wereinstalled, two inoperative instru-ments repaired, all the originalbatteries replaced, six new gyro-scopes (used to point thetelescope) installed, insulation

sor, the James Webb SpaceTelescop, is launched in October2018.

For the telescope’s silver anni-versary, NASA released an imageof a large cluster of approximately3,000 stars called Westerlund 2.The cluster is located in the con-stellation Carina at a distance ofapproximately 20,000 light years.Westerlund 2 is a relatively youngcluster (about 2 million year old)and contains some of the galaxy’shottest and most massive stars. Theintense radiation and high-speedsolar wind from these massive starsis sculpting the hydrogen cloud en-veloping the cluster into the pillarsof gas and dust seen in the photo.

This photograph of Hubble SpaceTelescope was taken on thesecond servicing mission to theobservatory in 1997.

NASA

replaced and other maintenanceperformed. The telescope is per-forming flawlessly, and is expectedto be operational when its succes-

The image of Westerlund 2 was captured by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and its Advanced Camera forSurveys, combining near-infrared with visible light images (credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team(STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team).

Ceres


Dragon Launch Abort TestOn May 06, 2015, SpaceX com-

pleted a critical milestone in dem-onstrating that its Dragon spacecapsule could safely carry astro-nauts away from the rocket boosterin the event of a launch failure. Ina pad abort test, the Dragon’s eightSuperDraco engines ignited andcarried the unmanned capsule to atop speed of 346 mph and to an al-titude of nearly 3,900 feet beforereturning to Earth by parachute.The 99 second test flight carriedthe capsule three quarters of a milefrom Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral to the wa-ters of the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceXis working towards a 2017 date forbeing astronaut ready.

The SuperDraco engines weremanufactured with cutting edge tech-nology and are designed to produceenough thrust to enable the capsuleto execute a controlled landing on

land or sea. Theengine’s combus-tion chambers weremanufactured by a3D printing processusing direct metallaser sintering. Theprocess uses lasersas a heat source tosinter (heat andbind) powderedmetal. The com-bustion chambersare printed withInconel, a nickel-

chromium alloy, allowing the en-gines to operate at high temperaturesand pressures.

The 3D printing process createsits target by dispersing micron thicklayers of the sintered Inconel in ac-cordance with a computer generateddesign. The resulting product hashomogeneous material propertieswith superior strength and fractureresistance.

CombustionChamber Photo:Credit SpaceX

Photo Credit: SpaceX

Photo Credit: SpaceX

Falcon’s First Stage Attempted Landing Upon Reentry


Developing aReusable Rocket

For only the second time, SpaceXattempted to recover the first stage ofits Falcon 9 rocket by landing thebooster on a barge staged 200 milesoff the coast of Florida. Following thelaunch of a Dragon resupply missionto the International Space Station (ISS)on April 14, 2015, the Falcon 9’s firststage engines were reignited to slowthe rocket’s reentry. SpaceX success-fully guided the rocket to a footballfield-sized ocean barge. The rocketbooster attempted to set down on thebarge but could not maintain an uprightconfiguration, tipping over and explod-ing on contact. Elon Musk, thecompany’s founder and chief execu-tive, blamed a “slower than expectedthrottle valve response” for thefailure. SpaceX will attempt another re-covery in late June when the companyis scheduled to fly another ISS resup-ply mission.

Blue OriginThe curtain of secrecy was briefly

pulled aside on April 29th as Blue Ori-gin (owned by Amazon-founder JeffBezos) posted a video of the first de-velopmental test flight of its subor-bital space vehicle “New Shepard.”The unmanned rocket climbed to analtitude of 58 miles on the thrust ofits liquid hydrogen/oxygen poweredBE-3 engine. The crew compartmentsuccessfully separated and returnedto Earth by parachute. The rocketbooster, designed to return to Earthunder power, crash landed, however,due to a failure in the rocket’s hy-draulic system. A redesigned hydrau-lic system should be available for thenext text flight.

Blue Origin is also working on ascaled-up version of New Shepardfor orbital missions. The company’snext generation BE-4 engine hasbeen selected by United Launch Al-liance to power its new Vulcanrocket.

Blue SunsetThe molecules in the Earth’s

atmosphere (and particles sus-pended within the atmosphere)scatter the Sun’s light as it passesthrough the air. Blue light is pref-erentially scattered due to itsshorter wavelength (a propertyknown as Rayleigh scattering).When the Sun is high in the sky,

blue light is scattered in all direc-tions and the sky appears blue to thehuman eye. However, when the Sunis low in the sky, the Sun’s light passesthrough more of the Earth’s atmo-sphere. The longer light path scatterseven more of the blue light, allowingthe longer wavelength red and yellowlight to be seen near the Sun.

The New Shepard vehicle is designed for sub-orbital flight, carryingthree or more astronauts to an altitude above 62 miles. It will competewith other companies such as Virgin Galactic for tourists wishing to travelto the edge of space.

New Shepard Lift-OffCredit: Blue Origin

Sunset at Gale CraterImage credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover recorded its first sunset (in color) atGale Crater on April 15, 2015.


On Mars, the atmosphere is 100times less dense than Earth’s atmo-sphere. Consequently, there is verylittle Rayleigh scattering by Mars’carbon dioxide molecules and ni-trogen gas. There is, however, asignificant amount of fine dust sus-pended in the Martian atmosphere.The dust preferentially scatters redlight. When the Sun is high in the

sky, red light is scattered in all di-rections and the sky takes on apinkish hue. However, when theSun is low in the sky, the Sun’slight passes through more of theMars’ atmosphere. The longer lightpath scatters even more of the redlight, allowing the shorter wave-length blue light to be seen nearthe Sun.

Summer SolsticeOn the morning of June 21st the

Sun will rise over a prehistoricstructure on the Salisbury Plain insouthern England as it has for thelast 4,000 years. For those indi-viduals standing within the 100foot diameter circle of 30 sand-stone or sarsen-stones (weighingup to 50 tons each), the Sun willappear over a large naturallyshaped stone (Heel Stone)located outside and to the north-east of the circle. The alignmentsignals the start of the longestday, midsummer, or the summersolstice.

The photo (below) shows thecurrent state of the stone circle.Many of the original stones aremissing or damaged. Over time,they were taken to build houses androads, chipped away by visitorsand taken as souvenirs. What re-

mains represents the last in a pro-gressive sequence of monumentserected at the site between 3,000and 1,600 B.C. The Heel Stone (be-low) is adjacent to the access roadto the site. The ancient people whoconstructed this monument left nowritten record of their accomplish-

ments or the intended use of thestone circle. Its purpose has beenwidely debated and many groupshave attempted to claim owner-ship. However, archeologists haveclearly shown that the constructionof Stonehenge predates the appear-ance of most modern cultures inBritain.

In the 1960s, Gerald Hawkins,an astronomer at the SmithsonianAstrophysical Observatory, foundthat each significant stone alignswith at least one other to point toan extreme position of the sun ormoon (“Stonehenge Decoded,”Doubleday & Company). ThatStonehenge is an astronomical ob-servatory or celestial calendar isintriguing, as the precision and ar-chitectural refinement by which itwas constructed certainly suggestsa significant purpose for this mega-lithic monument.

June HistoryWomen in Space

On June 16, 1963, ValentinaTereshkova became the firstwoman in space. Shortly after YuriGagarin’s flight, the Soviets begana search for suitable female candi-dates for spaceflight. With few fe-male pilots, the majority of the can-didates were women parachutists




(Valentina had joined an amateurparachuting club at the age of 18).Control of the Vostok spacecraftwas completely automatic, so pi-loting experience was not required.However, since the Vostok was notdesigned to return its occupantsafely to Earth, the cosmonaut wasrequired to eject from the space-craft after re-entry and parachuteto the landing site.

The selection of ValentinaTereshkova for the flight was madeby Premier Khrushchev. In addi-tion to experience and fitness,qualifications included being anideal Soviet citizen and modelCommunist Party member. OnJune 16th, Valentina rode Vostok 6

into orbit with the call sign “Chaika”(Seagull). The mission was not with-out incident and included space-sick-ness, leg cramps and other discom-forts from being strapped into thecapsule for three days. More impor-tantly, the capsule ended up in thewrong orientation and, had it notbeen corrected, would not have al-lowed her to return to Earth.

Valentina’s three days in spacewas more flight time than all theAmerican astronauts combined (atthat time). After fulfilling her du-ties to her country, Tereshkova re-tired to a small house on the out-skirts of Star City. The house wastopped with a seagull weathervane,the call sign of her flight.

An Extraordinary Feat

IF YOU HAVE EVER seen aGemini space capsule (thereis one on display at the Air

and Space Museum in Washington,D.C.) it is difficult to comprehendhow two people could have spentany length of time inside itscramped interior (Frank Bormanand Jim Lovell spent 14 days or-

biting the Earth in Gemini 7). Thereentry module, where the two as-tronauts sat, is approximately 11feet long with a maximum diam-eter of 7½ feet and filled with in-strumentation, life support systemsand controls.

On June 3, 1965, Gemini 4lifted off on a four day mission.

The highlight of the mission wasto be a spacewalk by Ed White.NASA was very concerned with“putting guys in vacuums withnothing between them but that littleold lady from Worcester, Massa-chusetts [the seamstress at theDavid Clark Company], and herglue pot and that suit.” However,the Soviets had challenged theUnited States with a spacewalk byCosmonaut Alexei Leonov inMarch during a Voskhod II mis-sion, and the United States did notwant to appear to be falling behindits adversary.

After struggling with a faultyhatch, Ed White finally exited thespacecraft as it passed over the Pa-cific Ocean. Using a gun poweredby compressed oxygen, he wasable to maneuver outside the cap-sule, just avoiding the flamingthrusters of the Gemini capsule.After a 23 minute spacewalk, Jim

Twenty years later on June 18th,Sally Ride became the first Ameri-can woman in space. Launchedaboard the space shuttle Chal-lenger, Sally served as the missionspecialist on the five person crew.

McDivitt struggled to get the sixfoot tall Ed White back inside thecapsule and close the balky door.

Unfortunately, after makinghistory as the first American towalk in space, Ed White diedduring a test of the Apollo 1spacecraft when the pure oxygenatmosphere exploded, killing allthree astronauts inside.

James A. McDivitt (foreground)and Edward H.White II inside theirGemini-4 spacecraft

Sunrise and SunsetSunrise and SunsetSunrise and SunsetSunrise and SunsetSunrise and SunsetSun Sunrise SunsetJune 1st (EDT) 05:22 20:21June 15th 05:19 20:29June 30th 05:23 20:32


Summer NightsFor the more adventurous and

sleep deprived individuals, the sum-mer sky sparkles as twilight deep-ens and the summer Milky Way rises.The Milky Way is heralded by thethree stars of the summer triangleVega, Deneb and Altair. Appearinglike a gossamer stream of stars, itflows across the night sky, empty-ing into the constellation Sagittarius.In our light-polluted skies, it may be

easier to see on nights when theMoon is absent (in the weeks pre-ceding and following the NewMoon on the 16th).

High in the June sky is theconstellation Hercules. Shapedlike a keystone or trapezoid, Her-cules is home to one of the finestglobular star clusters in the north-ern hemisphere. The Great Her-cules Cluster (M13) is a collec-

tion of several hundred thousandsuns located near the galactic coreof the Milky Way Galaxy at a dis-tance of approximately 25,000light years. Hercules rises in theevening after the constellationBoötes with its bright star Arcturusand before the constellation Lyrawith its bright star Vega. The clustercan be found on the side of the key-stone asterism facing Boötes.

Astronomical and Historical Events1st History: launch of the ROSAT (Röntgen) X-ray observatory; cooperative program between Germany, the United

States, and United Kingdom; among its many discoveries was the detection of X-ray emissions from CometHyakutake (1990)

2nd Full Moon (Strawberry Moon)2nd History: launch of the Mars Express spacecraft and ill-fated Beagle 2 lander (2003)2nd History: launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-91); ninth and final Mir docking Astronomical and Historical

Events (continued)2nd History: launch of Soviet Venus orbiter Venera 15; side-looking radar provided high resolution mapping of surface

in tandem with Venera 16 (1983)2nd History: Gemini 5, Gemini 11, Apollo 12 and Skylab 2 astronaut Pete Conrad born (1930)2nd History: discovery of Comet Donati by Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Donati; brightest comet of the 19th

century and first comet to be photographed (1858)3rd History: launch of Gemini 4; Ed White becomes first American to walk in space (1965)3rd History: launch of Gemini 9 with astronauts Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan (1966)3rd History: dedication of the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Mountain (1948)4th History: maiden flight of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket; launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida (2010)5th Trans-Neptunian Object and potential dwarf planet 2010 KZ39 at Opposition (45.170 AU)6th Venus at its Greatest Eastern Elongation (apparent separation from the Sun in the western sky) at 44°6th History: launch of Soviet Venus orbiter Venera 16; side-looking radar provided high resolution mapping of surface

in tandem with Venera 15 (1983)8th Trans-Neptunian Object 174567 Varda at Opposition (46.139 AU)8th History: New Horizons spacecraft, on its way to Pluto, crosses the orbit of Saturn (2008)8th History: launch of Soviet Venus orbiter/lander Venera 9; transmitted the first black and white images of the surface

of Venus (1975)8th History: Giovanni Cassini born, observer of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn (1625)9th Last Quarter Moon9th History: dedication of the Kathleen Fischer Sundial at the McCarthy Observatory (2012)10th Moon at perigee (closest distance from Earth)10th History: launch of Mars Exploration Rover A (Spirit) in 200310th History: launch of Explorer 49, Moon orbiter and radio astronomy explorer (1973)11th History: flyby of Venus by Soviet spacecraft Vega 1 on its way to Comet Halley; dropped off lander and a balloon

to study middle cloud layers (1985)12th Asteroid 2 Pallas at Opposition (8.6 Magnitude)12th History: launch of Venera 4, Soviet Venus lander; first to enter atmosphere of another planet (1967)13th History: return of the sample capsule from the Hayabusa (MUSES-C) spacecraft (2010)13th Second Saturday Stars/Open House at the McCarthy Observatory 8:00 to 10:00 pm14th Kuiper Belt Object and Plutino 28978 Ixion at Opposition (39.177 AU)14th History: launch of Mariner 5; Venus flyby mission (1967)14th History: launch of Venera 10; Soviet Venus orbiter/lander (1975)


15th History: flyby of Venus by Soviet spacecraft Vega 2 on its way to Comet Halley; dropped off lander and a balloonto study middle cloud layers (1985)

16th New Moon16th Flyby of Saturn’s moon Dione by the Cassini spacecraft16th Distant flyby of Saturn’s moons Polydeuces, Methone, Pan, Atlas, Janus, Telesto and Titan by the Cassini spacecraft16th Asteroid 1566 Icarus Near-Earth Flyby (0.054 AU)16th Centaur Object 5145 Pholus at Opposition (25.390 AU)16th History: Liu Yang becomes the first Chinese woman in space aboard a Shenzhou-9 spacecraft, joining two other

crew members on a thirteen day mission to the orbiting Tiangong 1 laboratory module (2012)16th History: Valentina Tereshkova; first woman in space aboard Soviet Vostok 6 (1963)17th History: discovery of the Dhofar 378 Mars Meteorite (2000)18th Mars Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere18th History: launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite

(LCROSS) to the Moon (2009)18th History: Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger (1983)19th Kuiper Belt Object 50000 Quaoar at Opposition (41.980 AU)19th History: flyby of Earth by the ill-fated Nozomi spacecraft on it way to Mars (2003)20th History: discovery of Nova 1670 in Vulpeculae (1670)21st Summer Solstice at 16:38 UT (4:38 pm EDT)22nd Centaur Object 10199 Chariklo at Opposition (14.105 AU)22nd Centaur Object 10370 Hylonome at Opposition (22.041 AU)22nd History: launch of Soviet space station Salyut 5 (1976)22nd History: founding of the Royal Greenwich Observatory (1675)22nd History: discovery of Pluto’s largest moon Charon by Jim Christy (1978)23rd Moon at apogee (furthest distance from Earth)23rd Centaur Object 55576 Amycus at Opposition (18.223 AU)24th First Quarter Moon24th Mercury at its Greatest Western Elongation (apparent separation from the Sun in the morning sky) at 22°24th History: launch of the Salyut 3 Soviet space station (1974)24th History: Fred Hoyle born; British astronomer and proponent of nucleosynthesis (1915)24th History: Sir William Huggins makes first photographic spectrum of a comet (1881)25th History: Rupert Wildt born, German-American astronomer and first to hypothesize that the CO

2 in the Venusian

atmosphere was responsible for the trapped heat (1905)25th History: Hermann Oberth born, father of modern rocketry and space travel (1894)26th History: Charles Messier born, famed comet hunter (1730)27th History: discovery of the Mars meteorite SAU 060, a small 42.28 g partially crusted grey-greenish stone found

near Sayh al Uhaymir in Oman (2001)27th History: flyby of the asteroid Mathilde by the NEAR spacecraft (1997)27th History: Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-71) first docking with the Russian space station Mir (1995)27th History: launch of SEASAT, the first Earth-orbiting satellite designed for remote sensing of the Earth’s oceans (1978)27th History: Alexis Bouvard born, French astronomer, director of Paris Observatory, postulated existence of eighth

planet from discrepancies in his astronomical tables for Saturn and Uranus. Neptune was subsequently discoveredby John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier after his death where he had predicted (1767)

28th History: Nakhla meteorite fall in Egypt (Mars meteorite), a piece of which was claimed to have vaporized a dog;first direct evidence of aqueous processes on Mars; (1911)

29th History: George Ellery Hale born, founding father of the Mt. Wilson Observatory (1868)30th Leap Second added to World’s Clocks30th Kuiper Belt Object 307261 (2002 MS

4) at Opposition; a Trans-Neptunian object discovered in 2002 by Chad

Trujillo and Michael E. Brown (45.891 AU)30th History: discovery of Haumea’s moon Namaka, the smaller, inner moon of the dwarf planet, by Mike Brown, et al. (2005)30th History: death of 3 cosmonauts in Soyuz 11 when capsule depressurizes on reentry – capsule was too cramped for

cosmonauts to wear spacesuits (1971)30th History: Tunguska Explosion Event (1908)228th History: Nakhla meteorite fall in Egypt (Mars meteorite), a

piece of which was claimed to have vaporized a dog; first direct evidence of aqueous processes on Mars; (1911)

Astronomical and Historical Events (continued)


References on Distances• The apparent width of the Moon (and Sun) is approximately one-half a degree (½°), less than the width of

your little finger at arm’s length which covers approximately one degree (1°); three fingers span approximatelyfive degrees (5°)

• One astronomical unit (AU) is the distance from the Sun to the Earth or approximately 93 million miles

International Space Station/Space Shuttle/Iridium SatellitesVisit www.heavens-above.com for the times of visibility and detailed star charts for viewing the Interna-

tional Space Station, the Space Shuttle (when in orbit) and the bright flares from Iridium satellites.

Solar ActivityFor the latest on what’s happening on the Sun and the current forecast for flares and aurora, check out

www.spaceweather.com.

Image CreditsFront page design and graphic calendars: Allan Ostergren

Page 3 Image: Globular cluster NGC 6637 is located in the constellation Sag-ittarius at a distance of approximately 29,700 light years. Globular clusters area tightly bound group of stars that orbit the galactic core and can contain up toseveral hundred thousand members. Image credit: ESA/NASA

Second Saturday Stars poster: Sean Ross, Ross Designs

June 2015Celestial Calendar

2nd Saturday StarsOpen House

McCarthy Observatory

Flyby of Venus by Sovietspacecraft Vega 1 on its wayto Comet Halley - dropped offlander and a balloon to studymiddle cloud layers (1985)

Launch of Mars Expressspacecraft and ill-fatedBeagle 2 lander. (2003)

Launch of ROSAT(Röntgen) X-ray

observatory (1990)

Launch of Soviet Venus Orbiter,Venera 15 to

map surface ofVenus, in tandem

with Venera 16(1983)

Maiden flight of Space XFalcon 9 rocket (2010)

Venera 16 - last ofSoviet Venus orbiter/

lander missions tomap Venusian

landscape (1983)

ValentinaTereshkova,1st woman inspace (1963)

SallyRide, 1st

U.S.woman in

space(1983)

Launch of Mariner 5, Venusflyby mission (1967) Flyby of Earth by the

ill-fated Nozomispacecraft on its way

to Mars (2003)

Summer Solstice05:04 UT

(1:04 AM EDT)

Royal GreenwichObservatory

founded(1675)

HermannOberth born,

father ofmodern

rocketry andspace travel

(1894)

CharlesMessier born,famed comet

hunter(1730)

AlexisBouvard

born,postulatedexistence of 8th

planet, lateridentified as Neptune (1767)

Discovery of Nova 1670 inVulpeculae by Pere Dom

Voiture Anthelme, aCarthusian monk in Dijon,

France (1670)

GiovanniCassini born,

observer ofMars, Jupiter

and Saturn(1625)

Launch of Venera 9, - 1st

black/white images of surfaceof Venus (1975)

Return of sample capsule fromthe Hayabusa (MUSES-C)

spacecraft, taken from near-Earth asteroid Itokawa (2010)

Discovery ofPluto's largestmoon Charonby Jim Christy

(1978)

Launch ofSoviet space

station Salyut 5(1976)

Launch of Venera 4, SovietVenus lander, first to enter

orbit of another planet(1967)

flyby of Venus by Sovietspacecraft Vega 2 on its way

to Comet Halley; droppedoff lander and a balloon tostudy middle cloud layers

(1985)

200-inch HaleTelescopededication

(1948)

Gemini 9 launch,Thomas Stafford,Eugene Cernan.

(1966)

Launch ofGemini 4;

Ed White 1st

American towalk in space

(1965)

Launch ofExplorer 49 -moon orbiter

and radioastronomy

explorer (1973)

Launch ofMars

ExplorationRover A

Spirit (2003)

Sir WilliamHuggins

makes 1stphotographicspectrum of acomet (1881)

Fred Hoyle born,British astronomerand proponent ofnucleosynthesis(1915)

Rupert Wildtborn, Germanastronomer

(1905)

Discovery of theDhofar 378 Marsmeteorite (2000)

Launch of LunarReconnais-sance Orbiterand LCROSSsatellite toMoon (2009)

Martin John Rees born, Britishcosmologist and astrophysicist,has contributed to knowlege of

the cosmic background radiation,galaxy clustering and formation,

and on the final disproof ofSteady State theory. (1942)

German astronomer WalterBaade discoversnear-earth asteroid1566 Icarus insideorbit of Mercury,which became thesubject of asteroid-busting "projectIcarus." (1949)

George ElleryHale born,founding

father of Mt.Wilson

Observatory(1868)

launch of SEASAT 1, firstEa r th -o rb i t i ngsatellite designedfor remote sensingof oceans (1978)

Nakhla meteor fall in Egypt- A piece of Mars objectfabled to have hit dog (1911)

Flyby of the asteroidMathilde by

the NEARspacecraft

(1997)

Shuttle Atlantis docks withRussian space station Mir toform the largest man-madesatellite ever to orbit the Earth -the second timeships from twocountries hadlinked up inspace (1995).

Yáng Lìwei, a Chi-nese major general,military pilot and aCNSA astronaut;was first man sentinto space by the

Chinese space program and hismission, Shenzhou 5, made Chinathe third country to independentlysend people into space (1965)

“Three flames ate the sun,and big stars were seen.” -etching on Chinese oraclebones indicating ancientsolar eclipse, with three

coronal streamers and starsvisible in the darkened sky.

(1302 BC)

Johann Gottfried Galle, Germanastronomer, born -

first to view planetNeptune, usingcalculations of

Urbain Le Verrier1846. (1812)

Liu Yangbecomes thefirst Chinese

woman inspace (2012)

Scheduled launch of theEuropean Space Agency's fourth

cargo-carrying AutomatedTransfer Vehicle (named AlbertEinstein) aboard an Ariane 5 ES

rocket from Kourou, FrenchGuiana to the International

Space Station

Dedicationof theKathleen Fischer

Sundial at theMcCarthy

Observatory (2012)

Launch of Venera 10,Soviet Venus orbiter/

lander (1975)

Moon atPerigee(closest

to earth)

June 24June 9 June 16

Phases of the Moon

June 2

FullstrawberryMoon

Moonat Apogee

(farthestfrom earth)

Tunguskaexplosion

event(1908)

Death of 3cosmonautsin Soyuz 11

when capsuledepressurizes in

reentry (1971)

Leap second added toworld clocks

June 27June 5June 13June 19

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jjmonl 1506 3 col B - John J. McCarthy Observatory