The best viewing time and how to find it

There are still three very observable planets in our evening sky. Jupiter off to the southwest just under the belly of Leo, and Mars and Saturn in the southeast almost in the claws of Scorpius, the Scorpion.

Best viewing times will be an hour to an hour and a half after local sunset -- sunset for now in Southwest Nebraska/northwest Kansas is just after 8 pm MDT.

I have been asked many times where to find the time for local sunset. I use a website called Sunrise Sunset. The ­­program asks you to input your location (state and town) then you can print out your own monthly calendar with sunrise and sunset times along with several other available options.

It can be found at: www.sunrisesunset.com/

Two nice spring constellations are in prime location for our mid- to late evening viewing these late spring evenings. They are Hercules, the Strong Man, and an old friend we have visited before, Bootes, the Herdsman.

Hercules is a relatively dim set of stars so a very dark-sky place will be needed. To assist with location, find the very bright star Vega located about one-quarter of the way up the eastern sky.

Once you have found Vega, continue to about halfway up the sky and look for a grouping of stars that make the capital letter, "H" laying on its side; that will be our strongman. One locating factor for Hercules is an asterism called the Keystone.

It will look a lopsided square of four stars forming the central part of his body.

Another aid in location is just above the Keystone, a semi-circle of stars called Corona Borealis, The Northern Crown. The open ends of the semi-circle point right to the Keystone.

Now for the good part, once you have located The Keystone, grab your binoculars and zero in on the line between the two stars at the top of the Keystone. Start in the middle of the line and slowly sweep your gaze toward the left star.

Somewhere along that line you will find one of the jewels of the night sky, M13, the Hercules star cluster. This is not an open cluster which we have seen before.

This is a giant globular star cluster with more than a million stars all stuffed into one giant ball.

If you feel the inclination, there is another globular cluster not too far away, but it will take a little looking to find it.

Draw a line between the two stars on the left side of the Keystone, start with your binoculars at about halfway down that line then move to the left and slightly down one field-of-view (FOV) length until you find the other globular cluster, M92.

Well, not enough room to talk about Bootes, so we will save him for next week.

SKY WATCH: First quarter moon, Sunday, June 12. Friday, June 10, the moon will be close on the right side of Jupiter. The next night, June 11, the moon is much closer to Jupiter on the other side of the planet. Use binoculars to examine the almost first quarter moon and the four Galilean moons of Jupiter.

NEXT WEEK: Bootes, some nice double-stars, and more astronomical blathering.