Starwatch Newsletter Minnesota Starwatch is a tape-recorded message describing the night sky in the Midwest, which can be called by telelphone number (612) 624-2001 It is updated montly, and is produced by the Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

The grand alignment of the planets that has been so spectacular in the western sky right after sunset, will come to an end in June. The climax will come when Venus passes just 1.6 degrees to the north of Jupiter on June 3 making a spectacular conjunction of the two most brilliant planets. On June 11 - 13, Venus will be just to the west of the crescent moon.

But the highlight this month will be a rare annular eclipse of the Sun on June 10. An annular eclipse occurs when the moon passes in front of the Sun, but the apparent angular diameter of the Moon is too small to completely cover the Sun, so we see a ring of red surrounding the black shadow of the Moon. The path of this annular eclipse will stretch across the Pacific ending on the Mexican coast just south of Puerto Vallarta. People in the western half of North America will see a partial eclipse in the late afternoon. In Minneapolis, the partial eclipse will last from 7:26 PM to 8:08 PM with almost 30% coverage of the Sun which however will be only 7 degrees above the horizon. The further west and south you go, the greater the coverage of the Sun. In Los Angeles, the sun will be 77% covered and a good 19 degrees above the horizon.

A second eclipse of the Sun will occur this year on December 4. This one will be total, but misses North America completely. The path of totality will cross southern Africa, the Pacific and ending over southern Australia.

The longest day, the first day of summer in our calendar will occur on June 21 with the Solstice officially at 8:24 CDT.

The Minneapolis Planetarium offers a wide variety of programs for all ages. For more information, call 612/630-6150.

For those interested in the Minnesota Astronomical Society, call 651/649-4861 for information on their upcoming events.

Minnesota Starwatch is available on-line at http://www.astro.umn.edu/Outreach/pub_out.html

This has been Minnesota Starwatch, produced by the University of Minnesota Astronomy Department in cooperation with WCCO Weather Center.

Last Updated: Mon May 20 10:56:13 2002