Three bright planets stairstep up the evening sky for most of the month. Venus, the Evening Star, is the brightest, followed by Jupiter, then Mercury (see Featured Event). Scorpius arcs low across the south during the night, while the Summer Triangle—the bright stars Vega, Deneb, and Altair—is in the east at nightfall and soars high overhead in the wee hours. The Big Dipper is high in the north at nightfall early in the month, but a little lower in the northwest by June’s end.
The full Moon of June is known as the Flower Moon, Strawberry Moon, Rose Moon, or Honey Moon.
Perigee June 14
Apogee June 28
Moon phases are Central Time.
The Hyades star cluster, which outlines the face of Taurus, the bull, is to the lower left of the Moon this evening. Its stars form a “V” shape. The brightest star in the outline is Aldebaran. It’s only about half as distant as the stars of the Hyades, however.
The Pleaides star cluster is close above the Moon at nightfall. It represents the shoulder of Taurus, the bull. Its brightest stars form the outline of a tiny dipper. Aldebaran, the bright orange eye of Taurus, is well to the left or upper left.
Three bright stars form a tall, skinny triangle in the east by 10 or 11 p.m. The brightest is yellow-orange Arcturus, the third-brightest star in the night sky. Spica is far to the right of Arcturus, with Regulus high above and to the right of Spica.
The crescent Moon and the planet Venus team up in the evening twilight tonight. Venus is the brilliant Evening Star. It is below the Moon, and it sets by the time the sky gets fully dark.
Spring arrives in the northern hemisphere tomorrow, when the Sun crosses the celestial equator from south to north, marking the vernal equinox. Over the next three months, the Sun will travel farther northward, bringing longer days north of the equator.
The heart of the galaxy Messier 87 features a monster black hole encircled by swirling hot gas. Powerful magnetic fields fire some of the gas outward as deadly radiation beams. M87 is low in the east by mid-evening, below Denebola, the tail of the lion.
The Virgo Cluster is a group of more than 1,500 galaxies about 55 million light-years away. It is centered near the border between Virgo and Leo, a spot that’s low in the east at nightfall and climbs higher later on. Many of the galaxies are easy targets for small telescopes.
From dark skywatching locations, a faint pyramid of light glows faintly in the west after nightfall the next few evenings. This dim glow is the zodiacal light, which is sunlight reflecting off of tiny grains of dust scattered around the inner solar system.
A three-way tug-of-war is playing out in the constellation Leo, which is in the east at nightfall. Three galaxies there are tugging at one another, producing spectacular results. The galaxies are M65, M66, and NGC 3628, known as the Leo Triplet.
Pyxis, the celestial compass, is quite low in the southeast at nightfall. It is a short streak of faint stars that aims toward the remnants of the Argo, the ship that carried Jason and the Argonauts.
