00:00Well, we jumped into June, and June brings longer days and some great astronomy events to watch for in the night sky.
00:07Joining us again is Professor Chris Palma, astronomy and astrophysics professor at Penn State's Elberle College of Science.
00:15We always look forward to your monthly visit.
00:18Good to have you.
00:20Thank you. I'm glad to be back.
00:22Oh, and by the way, I've opened up my box to get the telescope out, so we're getting close, Chris.
00:29We're getting close. Excellent.
00:31Huge progress. Huge project. All right, so maybe you can catch some of these.
00:35June, Chris, June's full moon is the Strawberry Moon.
00:39Where does that name come from, and when can we see it?
00:42So that moon is going to be overnight between June 10th and June 11th.
00:48All of these names are often from indigenous people, so I think that they're from northeastern tribes,
00:56and it apparently has to do with the strawberry harvest season being a short time in June.
01:02But, interestingly, this moon, where the sun is very high in the sky, the moon is actually going to be very low in the sky.
01:09So there's a chance it will actually look a little bit reddish or pink, and so that may also be part of the origin of the name.
01:16Love it.
01:17All right, the summer solstice is June 20th.
01:20What happens astronomically, and how does it affect stargazing?
01:26With the solstice, if you picture the sun getting higher and higher and higher,
01:31and then it basically comes to a stop before it starts getting lower and lower and lower,
01:35the solstice is the moment when the sun is highest in the sky at noon.
01:40And so what that means, we're getting ready for those really late sunsets and really early sunrises,
01:47so we're only going to get about eight hours of nighttime.
01:51So it limits your stargazing, but we still have eight hours of nighttime,
01:55but we'll have those long, warm days to look forward to.
01:58That's a good perspective.
02:00I didn't think about that.
02:00All right, World Asteroid Day.
02:03This doesn't sound good, by the way.
02:04Both on June 30th.
02:06What's the story behind it?
02:07Yeah, so World Asteroid Day is really interesting
02:11because you've probably heard those occasional things in the news.
02:15Hey, astronomers have found an asteroid that's potentially hazardous.
02:19It's going to pass closer to us than the moon.
02:22And, you know, we don't want to alarm anybody,
02:24but at the same time, we want to make sure that we're aware,
02:28is there anything really hazardous out there?
02:30And so this is just to call attention to that, right?
02:34That we need to be not just in the U.S., but worldwide.
02:38We need to be paying attention to these.
02:40We need to be studying them, finding them, documenting them,
02:43and really tracking them to make sure that none of them will, in fact, hit the Earth.
02:47And so that's what this is about,
02:48is raising awareness of these potentially dangerous asteroids,
02:52because if we find one, then we can do our best to see what we can do
02:55to protect ourselves from it.
02:57Just don't tell me about it, Chris.
02:59Ignorance is bliss from my standpoint.
03:00All right, with nightfall coming late in June, well, isn't it?
03:04It's true, because then if you tell him that he's going to bother me,
03:07and it's just a whole process.
03:09With nightfall coming late in June,
03:12is summer still a good time for stargazing?
03:15Certainly from a temperature perspective, it is.
03:18Any advice for beginners?
03:21Yeah, let's start really with beginners.
03:24How about looking for the Big Dipper?
03:26And so if you've never really spent a lot of time out with the stars,
03:29just try to find the Big Dipper.
03:32It's usually pretty easy.
03:34And the reason I say start there is that helps you find north.
03:38And then once you feel like you've found the Big Dipper and you can find north,
03:41just turn around, and now you're facing south.
03:44And then high in the southern sky,
03:46I would recommend looking for what's called the Summer Triangle.
03:49Three of the brightest stars in the sky make a nice big triangle,
03:54including Vega, Altair, and Deneb.
03:57So just start trying to find those and learn the names of the really bright,
04:02interesting stars that you can see any night in June, July, and August.
04:07All right, I have a new task, because I can always find the Big Dipper,
04:09and you feel so cool, like so much smarter than everyone else.
04:12But everyone can find it.
04:13But I'm going to turn around.
04:14I'm going to try to find the triangle.
04:15Very cool.
04:16All right, Chris Palma, astronomy and astrophysics professor
04:19at Penn State's Eberle College of Science.
04:21Thank you for joining us on AccuWeather Early.
04:23And Chris, we are?
04:25Penn State.
04:27You're darn right we are.
04:28All right, always learn something.
