Dining & Nightlife | Astronomy

Five Canterbury monks may have witnessed a large meteor hit the Moon on June 18, 1178. Victor Francis Hess, born on June 24, 1883, discovered cosmic rays; the discovery won him the Nobel prize in 1936. On June 3, 1965, during the Gemini 4 mission, Major Edward White became the first American astronaut to walk in space. Mankind’s first lunar landing took place on July 20, 1969. On July 22, 1994, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged the dramatic crash of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 into Jupiter. The Chandra X-Ray telescope, the largest payload ever carried by the shuttle, travelled skyward on July 23, 1999, right after the 30th anniversary of Man’s first moonwalk; with that flight, Col. Eileen Collins became the first female shuttle commander. It seems that June and July are auspicious months for astrophysics and space travel…

In the Sky this Summer
• Venus will be a bright “morning star” during the months of June and July.

• Saturn will continue to be visible in the early evening—why not come to Custer and see the ringed planet through a large telescope?

Important Dates
• The June Lyrids, a variable, low-rate meteor shower, peaks between the 14 and 16 of June with up to 10 meteors an hour.

• On July 15, the Moon will be full and frontally illuminated by the Sun.  This Moon is known as a “Full Buck Moon” to some native American tribes,  probably because Buck Deer begin to grow new antlers around this time.

• The Southern Delta Aquarids meteor shower peaks with up to 20 meteors per hour on the 28 and 29 of July, with some meteors visible from the 18 of July through the 18 of August. Look towards the East after midnight.