Our Moon, after traversing the boundaries of the constellation Leo the Lion, will then do a similiar crossing of the constellation Virgo the Harvest Maiden. Roughly midway across Virgo is the bright blue-white star Spica. From mythologies the star Spica represents a harvested bundle of grasses, maybe wheat or oats.
On the evening of June 28th the Moon will be about 7o to the west from Spica, and the next evening, June 29th the Moon will about 9-10o to the east from Spica.
-
- June 28 – 10 pm CDT
-
- June 29 – 10 pm CDT
Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.
Also Follow me and other great resources at Feedspot.
The pair should prove to be an interesting sight with binoculars or a wide-field telescope eyepiece. Venus shines with an apparent magnitude of -4.4, while Spica has an apparent magnitude of about 1.0.
Thursday December 22nd the planets Mars and Jupiter are aligned in an arrangement known as heliocentric opposition. The two planets are on opposite sides of the Sun and are approximately 180o apart in heliocentric longitude as measured around the celestial equator. Mars has a heliocentric longitude of approximately 10o, while Jupiter is at 190o. However the two planets are not necessarily at the same level (above or below) relative to the ecliptic. Both planets are south of the celestial equator with Mars at 