David Dickinson

@astrodave.bsky.social

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Writer, Space pundit, Skywatcher

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Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are in 1234 order tonight from 15:48 UT (Ganymede swaps places with Callisto) to 16:52 UT (Europa swaps places with Io), then Io and Europa cast shadows on Jupiter from 1:07 UT to 1:33 UT, favoring the Mid-East & E. Europe in the pre-dawn hours.

Folks had clear skies for this past weekend’s occultation of the bright star Spica by the waxing gibbous Moon… here’s some highlights we found from across the web: Links: youtube.com/shorts/DcSb2... spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload... www.youtube.com/watch?v=J087... x.com/stellar_moss...

Lunar occultation of Spicayoutube.com The moon crossing over Spica, the brightest star in Virgo, on 7/13/24 at 7:53 PM Arizona time. Video taken with Seestar S50 smart scope and iPhone 14.

Sunspot AR 3738 threw some space weather love Earthward early this morning, unleashing an X-1.2 class flare at 2:35 UT. Though the group is now rotating away from us, it could still provide a glancing blow to Earth’s space weather environment later this week.

A possible shakeup occurred this past week, as Meade & Orion both closed their California offices. Both are owned by Optronic Technologies Inc, which acquired Meade after an antitrust lawsuit in 2019. Here’s a post on the situation from @SkyandTelescope skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

Meade and Orion Cease Operations — Maybeskyandtelescope.org Two well-known telescope suppliers have come to an end.

SpaceX launched a Falcon-9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California early this AM, with Starlink Group 9-3: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHsZ... However, word is from @SpaceX is that the launch was a partial failure, as the second stage engine did not complete a second burn.

SpaceX Starlink 179 launch and Falcon 9 first stage landing, 12 July 2024www.youtube.com A SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle launched 20 Starlink satellites (Starlink-179 / Starlink 9-3) to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) a...

This weekend: North American observers have a chance to witness waxing gibbous (+52% illuminated) Moon occult Spica. The event covers most of Canada, CONUS and Mexico on Saturday night centered on 2:31 UT/10:31 PM EDT. Here’s our post for Universe Today - universetoday.com/167681/the-m...

It’s an astronomical mystery… #OnThisDay 1972 ‘Someone’ may have taken their “Learjet up to Nova Scotia to see a total solar eclipse of the Sun…” as alluded to in Carly Simon’s hit song You’re So Vain. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_e...

Solar eclipse of July 10, 1972 - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Tonight: be sure to catch the inaugural launch of ESA’s Ariane-6 rocket. Liftoff from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana is set for 18:00 Universal Time. This is the first launch from pad ELA-4, and the first flight of ESA’s new heavy lift rocket. www.youtube.com/live/B0oFpOJ...

Ariane 6 first flight (Official broadcast)www.youtube.com Ariane 6 is scheduled to launch on 9 July 2024, with a launch window from 15:00-19:00 local time at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana (19:00–23:00 BST, 9 J...

Something big is lurking on the farside of the Sun. Solar astronomers can actually ‘see’ goings on on the remote half of the Sun that’s currently out of view, via a nifty method known as solar helioseismology. Whatever is coming our way, should be visible later this week.

The ISS enters a period of full illumination this week. This is a product of the station’s high inclination orbit, which is needed to reach it worldwide. Also known as ‘high beta-angle season,’ precautions are taken to cool the station by angling the solar panels to cast shadows.

Mercury transits the open star cluster Messier 44 tonight – look for the pairing low to the west at dusk. Use binoculars to 4 Vesta nearby. Look for Venus even lower to the horizon… the waxing crescent Moon joins the scene, rounding out the vista over the next few evenings.

Can you feel the heat? It may not seem it, but the Earth actually passed aphelion (its farthest point from the Sun) today at 5:06 Universal Time at 1.0167 Astronomical Units (94.5 million miles) from the Sun. The Sun is also visually smaller in July (we checked a few years back):

Never seen Mercury? This month is a good time to try, as the innermost world puts on a showing low to the west at dusk. Venus, the crescent Moon, M44 & 4 Vesta join the show. Here’s our post on ‘all things mercurial’ and more in July for Universe Today - www.universetoday.com/167639/meeti...

Meeting Mercury at Dusk in Julywww.universetoday.com Mercury puts on one of its best apparitions for 2024 this month.

It’s the holy grail of modern exoplanet astronomy. A new study looks at using a technique known as dual-field interferometry to image nearby 'Exo-Earths,' using the VLT and more. Here’s our latest post on the method for Universe Today - www.universetoday.com/167390/exist...

Existing Telescopes Could Directly Observe 'ExoEarths...' with a Few Tweakswww.universetoday.com One proposal offers a unique method to directly image ExoEarths, or rocky worlds around nearby stars.

I remember watching this one live: A Proton-M rocket launching out Baikonur with 3x Kosomos sats experienced a ‘launch anomaly’ (turns out, a speed sensor was placed upside down) #Onthisday 2013, ending the short-lived mission in a terrific fireball. youtu.be/rfuXUr-_Rns?...

Proton M Rocket Explosion 02/07/2013youtu.be Видео было снято на расстоянии 3х километров от места запускаThe video was recorded 3 kilometers away from the launch siteLaunch site: Baikonur Cosmodrome, ...

July Astro Events 2-Moon occults M45 (Pacific) 5-Earth aphelion 5-New Moon 6-Mercury v M44 14-Moon occults Spica (N America) 17-Moon occults Antares (S Africa) 21-Full Moon 22-Mercury at greatest elongation (dusk) 24-Moon occults Saturn (SE Asia) 29-Moon occults M45 (SE Asia)

July Launches 1-(JAXA/Tanegashima)H3/ALOS-4 2-(Firefly/VSFB)Alpha/Noise of Summer 2-(iSpace/Jiuquan)Hyperbola1/Unk 3-(SpaceX/Cape)Falcon-9/Starlink G8-9 5-(CASC/Taiyuan)Long March6A/Unk 8-(SpX/Cape)F9/Türksat6A 9-(ESA/Guiana)Ariane62/Demo 10-(SpX/VSFB)F9/T11 15-(SpX/KSC)F9/WL3&4

Rocket Launch Schedulenextspaceflight.com Next Spaceflight's rocket launch schedule keeps you up to date with rocket launches both past and present.

Today: U.S. Navy Destroyer-sized 152-metre asteroid 2024 MK passes ~290,000 km from the Earth (0.75 lunar distances) Closest approach occurs on June 29th at 13:46 UT. At closest approach, the asteroid may appear as an +8th mag ‘star’ gliding through the constellations of Sagittarius into Aquila.

China’s Chang’e 6 sample return capsule reentered the Earth’s atmosphere over Siziwang Banner in Inner Mongolia earlier this week with ~2.2 kg of material from the farside of the Moon. Here’s our latest post on the sample return for @SkyandTelescope skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

China's Chang'e 6 Has Returned with Pieces from the Farside of the Moonskyandtelescope.org In a first, China’s Chang’e 6 mission brings back material from the farside of the Moon.

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I just took its picture! Wow! I didn’t even know! When I share these type of moon photos with my family they call it “the lint moon” because they try to wipe the lint off their phone, and that’s the moon.🤣

The Moon reaches its farthest perigee for 2024 today at 11:46 UT, at 369,291 km distant… the waning gibbous Moon then occults Saturn for S. North America (daytime), the Pacific, and E. Australia and N. New Zealand today at ~15:00 UT; the rest of us will see a close pairing.

Interesting… remember the tool bag that astronauts lost during a routine repair space walk outside the International Space Station last November? Well, U.S. CSpOC Space-Track is now listing a decay epoch for the wayward tool bag (ID 1998-067WC/58229) for June 29th. www.space.com/astronauts-i...

Astronauts dropped a tool bag during an ISS spacewalk, and you can see it with binocularswww.space.com A tool bag that gave astronauts the slip during a spacewalk at the International Space Station is surprisingly bright and can be seen with binoculars.

Attack of the Starlink(s)… SpaceX carried out coast-to-coast launches last night, with Starlink Group 10-2 from the Cape and Group 9-2 a few hours later from Vandenberg: youtu.be/tRHsJ5iI52U?... We saw Group 10-2 an orbit and a half later as a tightly packed line in the dusk sky.

SpaceX Starlink 176 launch and Falcon 9 first stage landing, 24 June 2024youtu.be A SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle launched 20 Starlink satellites (Starlink-176 / Starlink 9-2) to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) a...

Tonight - The waning gibbous Moon passes 1.5ºS of Pluto… be sure to wave at New Horizons and Pioneer 11, escaping the solar system in the same direction. Both are headed outward along the galactic plane in the general directions of the constellations Scutum and Sagittarius.

The earthward face of Sol is still looking mighty active today, with three (!) large sunspot groups: Active Regions 3712, 3713 and AR3716. Though this threesome is now rotating away from us, they still have the ability to impact space weather as they head towards the solar limb.

Tonight: The Moon reaches Full phase for Brown Lunation 1255 at 1:09 Universal Time… the June Full Moon is known as the Strawberry or Rose Moon. www.space.com/39238-full-m... The June Full Moon also has the distinction of being the most southerly Full Moon of the year.

Full moon names for 2024 (and how they came to be)www.space.com The full moon names for each month, why they're named so and what we can expect from these lunar events.

Happy northward solstice today at 20:51UT marking the start of astronomical summer in the northern hemisphere & winter in the southern. This marks the northernmost point for the Sun along its apparent annual celestial path of the Sun on the ecliptic plane. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analemma

Analemma - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Tomorrow: the +96% illuminated, waxing gibbous Moon occults (passes in front of) the +1.1 magnitude star Antares (Alpha Scorpii) for the Pacific and eastern Asia at ~12:00 Universal Time (UT) – the rest of us will see a close pairing of the two worldwide.

Mercury and Venus meet up today, passing just 0.9 degrees (54’) apart… and though the conjunction is unobservable, as it occurs just 4 degrees from the Sun, you can see the sky show via the joint NASA/ESA Solar Heliospheric Observatory’s LASCO C3 imager, which stares sunward.

The +73% Moon occults (passes in front of) the +1stmagnitude star Spica (Alpha Virginis) for north-central Asia today at ~18:11 Universal Time (UT)… the rest of the world with see a close pairing of the two tonight in the dusk sky. www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/bstar/0...