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.
At 2,500 light-years away, M48 is one of the most distant star clusters of its type visible to the eye. At nightfall, it’s high in the southern sky, far to the upper left of Sirius, the night’s brightest star. Binoculars reveal some of M48’s individual stars.
If you have a compass, let it point you to the southeast as night falls for Pyxis, the celestial compass. It’s a short line of faint stars, aiming toward the remnants of the Argo – the ship that carried Jason and the Argonauts. Pyxis represents its compass.
The Moon will reach last quarter early tomorrow as it lines up at a right angle to the line connecting Earth and the Sun. The Sun will illuminate half of the Earth-facing lunar hemisphere, making it look as if some cosmic giant had sliced the Moon down the middle.
The Sun appears in Pisces today, which is the spring equinox. That spot is known as the First Point of Aries because, more than 2,000 years ago, the Sun appeared in Aries at the equinox. A “wobble” in Earth’s axis has shifted that point into Pisces.
An owl stares out from the Big Dipper. Known as the Owl Nebula, it consists of concentric bubbles of gas blown into space by a dying star. It’s round, and seen through a telescope or in photographs, it has two dark patches that look like an owl’s eyes.
Coma Berenices is low in the eastern sky in early evening. It consists of a faint spray of sparkly stars, although you need dark skies to see them. Many galaxies lie within it, including NGC 4383, which is puffing out a chimney of gas that’s 20,000 light-years long.
Only one constellation is named for a real person. Coma Berenices represents the hair of Queen Berenice II of Egypt, who reigned more than 2,200 years ago. The constellation is in the east in mid-evening. Its stars are faint, so you need a dark sky to see them.
The constellation Sagittarius is low in the south-southeast at dawn. Its brighter stars form the outline of a teapot. The center of the Milky Way Galaxy is immersed in the faint “steam” rising from the teapot’s spout.
Spica, the brightest star of the constellation Virgo, rises below the Moon this evening, and the Moon will move closer to it during the night. Spica consists of two stars locked in orbit around each other. Both stars are bigger, brighter, and hotter than the Sun.
Earth’s atmosphere bends and splits sunlight, creating rainbows and other displays, including the rarely seen “green flash.” Under clear, clean skies it appears with the first burst of sunlight before sunrise or the last glimpse at sunset.
