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.
Earth will be farthest from the Sun for the entire year on Thursday. Our planet will be roughly 94.5 million miles from the Sun, which is 1.5 million miles farther than average. The changing distance makes little difference in Earth’s climate, however.
The star cluster Messier 5 is high in the south at nightfall, in Serpens Caput, the head of the serpent. Through binoculars, it looks like a fuzzy star. A small telescope reveals some of the cluster’s individual stars.
Mars and the Moon stage a spectacular encounter this evening. The Moon will slide just a fraction of a degree from the planet, which looks like a bright star. The true star Regulus is close to their lower right.
The Moon and two bright pinpoints stairstep up the western sky this evening. Regulus, the heart of the lion, is to the upper left of the Moon. And the planet Mars is about the same distance to the upper left of Regulus.
Sagittarius, the constellation that marks the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, scoots low across the south on summer nights. Its brightest stars form the outline of a teapot, with the glowing band of the Milky Way rising from the spout like steam.
Mercury looks like a fairly bright star to the left of the Moon this evening. They are quite low in the sky as twilight fades, so you need a clear horizon to spot them. Pollux and Castor, the “twin” stars of Gemini, line up to the right of the Moon.
The Moon is “new” at 5:32 a.m. CDT today as it crosses between Earth and the Sun. It is lost from view in the Sun’s glare, but should be visible as a thin crescent quite low in the west shortly after sunset tomorrow.
425 years ago, a “new” star flared to life near the neck of Cygnus, the swan. Known as P Cygni, it slowly faded, then flared twice more during the 17th century, and has stayed visible ever since. It is roughly 600,000 times the Sun’s brightness.
Cygnus, the swan, soars through summer nights. Its brightest star, Deneb, is in the northeast at nightfall. It marks the swan’s tail. The body stretches to the right, parallel to the horizon. The wings extend above and below, connected to the body by the star Sadr.
Summer is a great time to watch the Big Dipper. Tonight, it stands high in the northwest as darkness falls, and it drops toward the horizon during the night. As always, the stars of the Big Dipper appear to rotate around Polaris, the pole star.
