Astro Update

June 19: Astrophotography Special Interest Group (ASIG) https://www.denverastro.org/events/astrophotography-special-interest-group-asig-meeting-2-of-2-6/?occurrence=2024-06-19

June 20: Summer Solstice (longest day and shortest night of the year for Earth’s northern hemisphere)

June 21: Full Strawberry Moon – This is the lowest full moon of the year, appearing extremely low on the horizon.… Continue reading.

The attached image from Stellarium-web.org shows the expected sky at 10:00 p.m. on Friday, June 14, as seen from Chamberlin Observatory (39.67605 -104.95297).… Continue reading.

May 28: Webinar: Brief History of Everything with Dr. Patrick C. Breysse

May 29: MakerSig Meeting

June 3-4: Six Planets Walk the Line

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eDWcUUg-5YI?feature=share

DAS Stargazing Forecast

ChamberlinObservatory Weather/Visibility Chart

Kline-Dodge Dark Site Weather/Visibility Chart

Viewing Resources

Night Sky Networks June Viewing Companion (Cepheus, Draco, Ursa Major, Herschel’s Garnet Star, Cat’s Eye Nebula)

Earth and Sky

Sky & Telescope Observing Notes

Sky Maps for June 2024

SLS Launch Further Delayed – Following previous technical delays, the first Space Launch System (SLS) rocket returned to the safety of NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building before the landfall of Hurricane Ian. After confirming that it suffered no damage, NASA announced they’re likely to make another launch attempt in November.… Continue reading.

New JWST Images – James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) astronomers have continued to release new images. Among them is a mosaic covering an area about eight times the size of Webb’s First Deep Field released in July. The mosaic was made for the CEERS program, which is surveying a fraction of one square degree of sky with JWST in various infrared wavelengths.… Continue reading.

Webb Observations Released – NASA released the first full-color images and spectra taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, that weren’t alignment or test images. The telescope operates in infrared, so for humans to be able to see Webb images, the wavelengths detected are shifted to visible light wavelengths such that they appear to be color images.… Continue reading.

JWST Survives Micrometeoroid – NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) team revealed that a micrometeoroid hit one segment of its primary mirror, causing a very slight degradation in its image. The impacting object was roughly the size of a dust particle, but still a bit larger than pre-launch estimates predicted should hit the mirror during the lifetime of the telescope.… Continue reading.

Milky Way Black Hole – An international collaboration of astronomers released the first detailed image of the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy, known as Sgr A*. Event Horizon Telescope consortium is the same that three years ago imaged the black hole at the center of galaxy M87, known as M87*.… Continue reading.

Milky Way Star Formation History – The sub giant phase of a star’s life occurs when nuclear fusion stopped in its core and it is on the way to becoming a red giant star. A sub giant star’s age can be calculated fairly precisely from measurable properties like its elemental composition.… Continue reading.

FRB Source Located – Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are powerful flashes of radio energy that last only milliseconds, and what causes them is not understood. Some of them repeat from the same source, but many do not. A research team led by scientists at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Amsterdam linked up twelve radiotelescope antennas around the world to obtain extreme location precision on one FRB repeater.… Continue reading.