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 “bubble” that represents the dying breath of a Sun-like star is on the edge of Gemini, which is well up in the east at nightfall. Known as the Medusa Nebula, the bubble is about 1,500 light-years away, and it spans more than four light-years.
Wezen, the third-brightest star of Canis Major, is about to dump huge supplies of chemical elements into space – everything from carbon and oxygen to silicon and iron. It will expel enough material to make several stars as massive as the Sun.
The planet Saturn poses near the Moon the next couple of evenings. It looks like a bright golden star. It stands to the upper left of the Moon tonight, and a bit farther below the Moon tomorrow night.
In ancient Greece and Rome, Orion was known as a mighty hunter. But in ancient Egypt, the figure was even mightier. It represented Osiris, the god of the underworld. In fact, Osiris was thought to reside in the stars of Orion’s Belt.
Orion is in the east and southeast at nightfall. Bright orange Betelgeuse marks its left shoulder. Lambda Orionis, to the upper right of Betelgeuse, looks fainter, but it consists of two monster stars, one of which may be 200,000 times brighter than the Sun.
Betelgeuse, the bright shoulder of Orion, is a third of the way up in the east-southeast at nightfall, to the left of Orion’s Belt. Astronomers have recently detected a possible companion star that appears to be a little bigger and heavier than the Sun.
In “Star Trek,” the star 40 Eridani is home to the planet Vulcan. Astronomers haven’t found any planets orbiting the star, however. 40 Eridani is in the southeast at nightfall, far to the upper right of Orion’s Belt. Under dark skies, it is visible to the eye alone.
Epsilon Eridani is the third-closest star system that’s visible to the unaided eye, at a distance of just 10.5 light-years. It is well up in the south-southeast at nightfall, far to the right of the top right corner of Orion.
Under dark skies, the Milky Way is in good view tonight. In early evening, it extends along the body of Cygnus, the swan, in the west-northwest; through M-shaped Cassiopeia, higher in the sky; then between Orion and the twins of Gemini, in the east-southeast.
A star cluster discovered by Caroline Herschel, one of the first women astronomers, is in view tonight in Canis Major, the big dog. It stands to the lower left of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, and is visible through binoculars.
