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.
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.
To the eye, the brightest star in the night sky is Sirius, which is in the south at nightfall. If we could see ultraviolet light, however, the brightest star would be Adhara, a little below Sirius. It’s quite hot, so it emits much of its light in the ultraviolet.
Four star clusters follow a narrow path near Canis Major, the big dog: Messier 46, 47, 48, and 50. They are in the south and southeast at nightfall. Look for Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, due south. The clusters spread to the left and upper left of Sirius.
Winter brings out some prominent constellations. One of the most conspicuous is Canis Major, the big dog. It’s best known for Sirius, the Dog Star, which is the brightest star in the night sky. Sirius is a third of the way up the southern sky at nightfall.
The Moon is at last quarter tonight, three-quarters of the way through its month-long orbit around Earth. At last quarter, sunlight illuminates exactly half of the hemisphere facing our way, so it looks as though someone sliced the Moon in half.
Antares, the bright heart of the scorpion, perches close to the Moon at dawn tomorrow. Antares is roughly a dozen times as massive as the Sun and hundreds of times wider. Because of its great heft, it will explode as a supernova, likely within the next million years.
Canopus is the second-brightest star in the night sky. At this time of year, it’s visible from the southern third of the United States during the evening. It’s low in the south, well below Sirius, the brightest star.
The tale of Jason and the Argonauts is one of the biggest in Greek mythology. Their boat, Argo, was placed in the stars as Argo Navis. It was so huge that astronomers split it into three constellations: Carina, the keel; Vela, the sail; and Puppis, the poop deck.
Arcturus, the brightest star in Bootes, the herdsman, shows itself low in the east by about 9:30 or 10 p.m. It’s the brightest star on the eastern side of the sky. It stands at the point of a faint pattern of stars that looks like an ice cream cone.
