Event Date: June 11th
Time: 3:51(.45) AM
Brief
Let's back the clock earlier to a darker hour-- for this time of year anyway! With the Sun rising only a few seconds later than its earliest of the year for our latitude (which happens on the 13th), that means that shortly before 4 AM, the sky is already starting to slowly lighten in the northeast. Looking south and southwest, it still seems dark enough. However, if you are deep sky viewing in the north and eastern skies, your targets will become harder to see with the unaided eye. A telescope can pick them up longer, depending on their magnitudes. Looking towards that part of the sky, I labeled a few to keep in mind, including one of the most popular: the Andromeda Galaxy, which became high enough to view last month low in the northeast. The brighter in magnitude, the more bold the label (e.g. Andromeda vs close by M32). If you want to learn more about these objects and what they look like magnified, there are various websites to do so, and a good one can be found here:
Time: 3:51(.45) AM
Brief
Let's back the clock earlier to a darker hour-- for this time of year anyway! With the Sun rising only a few seconds later than its earliest of the year for our latitude (which happens on the 13th), that means that shortly before 4 AM, the sky is already starting to slowly lighten in the northeast. Looking south and southwest, it still seems dark enough. However, if you are deep sky viewing in the north and eastern skies, your targets will become harder to see with the unaided eye. A telescope can pick them up longer, depending on their magnitudes. Looking towards that part of the sky, I labeled a few to keep in mind, including one of the most popular: the Andromeda Galaxy, which became high enough to view last month low in the northeast. The brighter in magnitude, the more bold the label (e.g. Andromeda vs close by M32). If you want to learn more about these objects and what they look like magnified, there are various websites to do so, and a good one can be found here:
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Detailed
The time above shows the official time that the sky is at its darkest, although a split second before astronomical twilight begins; when the Sun is at the 18º mark below the horizon. It tangents and crosses the horizon for official Sunrise time at 5:46(.12) AM, almost 2 hours later. Therefore, each phase of twilight, with nautical and civil to follow astronomical, all about 38-39 minutes long on average. Near the first day of winter in December when the Sun is just as far south as it is north this week, twilight is only about 30 minutes per phase.
Tomorrow, I will show this same part of the sky at the start of nautical twilight. At that time, with the Sun 6º closer to the horizon, these deep-sky'ers will be more challenging to see even with powerful, portable-sized telescopes. Give it a try however!
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