(♪)
What's Up for June?
Saturn at its best!
Plus, good views of Mars,
Jupiter and Jupiter's moons
continue from dusk to dawn.
Hello and welcome, I'm Jane
Houston Jones at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, California.
You don't have to
stay up late to see
Jupiter, Mars and
Saturn this month,
because they're all
visible soon after sunset.
Jupiter is the
brightest of the three,
visible in the western
sky all evening.
The four Galilean moons
are easily visible
in binoculars or telescopes.
If you think you're seeing
five moons on June 10th,
you're not.
One of them is a distant star
in the constellation Leo.
(whoosh)
For telescope viewers,
the time near Mars'
closest approach to Earth,
May 30th this year,
is the best time to try to
see the two moons of Mars:
Phobos and Deimos.
It takes patience, very steady
skies and good charts!
I saw both moons in my telescope
at Mars Opposition in 2003.
Mars is still large and
bright in early June,
but it fades as speedy Earth,
in its shorter orbit
around the sun, passes it.
(whoosh)
Saturn has been close
to Mars recently.
This month Saturn
reaches opposition,
when Saturn, Earth and the
sun are in a straight line
with Earth in the middle,
providing the best
and closest views of
the ringed beauty and
several of its moons.
You'll be able to
make out cloud bands
in delicate shades of
cream and butterscotch.
They're fainter than
the bands of Jupiter.
Through a telescope you'll see
Saturn's rings tilted about as
wide as they get: 26 degrees.
You'll also have a ring-side
view of the Cassini division,
discovered by Giovanni Domenico
Cassini, the namesake of NASA's
Cassini spacecraft,
orbiting Saturn since 2004
and continuing through
September 2017.
When you look at Saturn
through a telescope,
you can't help but see several
of its 4 brightest moons,
and maybe more.
If you just see
one, that's Titan,
50% larger than our own moon.
A telescope can also
reveal more moons,
like Saturn's two-colored
moon Iapetus.
It takes 3 months
to orbit Saturn,
and it's fairly easy to see.
(whoosh)
There's a bright comet visible
this month, Comet PanSTARRS.
It's best seen from the
southern hemisphere,
but it's also
visible in the U.S.
low in the morning sky.
Comet PanSTARRS can be
seen through a telescope
near the beautiful
Helix Nebula on June 4,
but it is visible all month.
You can catch up on current
missions to comets, Jupiter,
and Saturn and all of
NASA's other missions at:
www.nasa.gov
That's all for this month.
I'm Jane Houston Jones.
(♪)
