Astronomy fans around the world experienced the epic super blood moon eclipse this week. That’s a hard act to follow but there are some exciting events ahead in the space calendar.
Here are all the space events coming up in June.
June’s Astronomy Highlights
Winter Solstice
June 21 marks the winter solstice in the southern hemisphere. It will also signal the summer solstice for the northern hemisphere.
The winter solstice occurs when the south pole is at its maximum tilt away from the sun. This is also considered the “shortest” day of the year as we get the fewest daylight hours.
According to Time and Date, we’ll get just 9 hours and 53 minutes of daylight during the winter solstice in Sydney, so remember to wear warm clothes for your commute.
Solar Eclipse
The annual solar eclipse will occur on June 10. This eclipse is sometimes referred to as the Ring of Fire because the moon doesn’t completely block out the sun and leaves a ring of light.
Unfortunately, we won’t get to see this one in Australia. The best viewing locations will be from the Northern Hemisphere in countries like Canada, Russia and Greenland.
However, like the rare blood supermoon, there’s sure to be plenty of live streams of this stunning eclipse floating around the internet if you want to tune in.
ISS spacewalks
June is a busy month for spacewalks up at the International Space Station.
According to Space.com, on June 2, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov will go for a 6.5-hour spacewalk outside the ISS.
Then on June 16 an operation to install a new solar array will begin. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will take a 6.5-hour walk outside the ISS to begin the installation. Then, on June 20, the two astronauts will take a second spacewalk together to continue their work on the solar array.
All these spacewalks can be viewed live.
Other astronomy dates in June
- June 1 – the conjunction of the moon and Jupiter
- June 10 – Shenzhou 12 will take Chinese astronauts to the Chinese space station
- June 10 – Solar eclipse
- June 13 – the conjunction of the moon and Mars
- June 21 – Winter solstice
- June 24 – Full moon
- June 27 – the conjunction of the moon and Saturn
Happy stargazing!