Sky Report by Ted Gruber
Venus (magnitude -3.9) and Mercury (1.9) become visible in the northwest as the sky darkens right after sunset. Currently, both planets remain visible until setting just after 10:00pm, with Mercury appearing just above Venus. On May 28, the two planets appear less than 0.5° apart, and after that conjunction, brighter Venus appears above Mercury, with the gap between the planets increasing each evening. Mercury remains visible through the first week in June. A thin crescent moon appears about 1.5° north of Venus the evening of June 11.
Mars (magnitude 1.7) becomes visible in the west-northwest as the sky darkens. The red planet currently sets just after midnight and around 11:30pm by mid-June. A crescent moon appears about 3° north of Mars the evening of June 13.
Saturn (magnitude 0.6) currently rises in the east-southeast just after 1:00am, with Jupiter (-2.4) following about 45 minutes later. Both planets rise about 90 minutes earlier by mid-June and remain visible until fading into the morning sunlight. The moon appears about 5° southeast of Saturn the morning of May 31 and about 5° southeast of Jupiter the next morning.
Last (6/2), new (6/10), first (6/17), full (6/24)
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Hello, everyone. Can you help us with a minor mystery?
We're trying to identify the exact model and year of a Celestron NexStar telescope kindly donated to the Friends of Galileo Astronomy Club. It needs some repairs but it should be a valuable part of our telescope library.
It's an older model NexStar so the current user manuals don't quite fit. The scope says item #31132, D=130mm, F=650mm. Celestron hasn't responded.
The donor said the telescope is functional except for the external battery pack, which takes eight AA batteries. There is no internal power pack is there is in new models. We cleaned up some battery corrosion but no luck getting the hand controller to power on at all.
Rose City Astronomers did give us some tips to go on (thanks, RCA!) but we need more info.
If you have any suggestions, let us know through our Contact page.
Thanks in advance!
Friends of Galileo
We are astronomy enthusiasts who love to learn and to share our wonder at the amazing sights right overhead.