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.
Orion, one of the most beautiful constellations, is putting in its final evening appearance of the season over the next few nights. It soon will disappear in the Sun’s glare. The next time we see it, it will be in the morning sky shortly before sunrise.
Spica, the brightest star of Virgo, is quite close to the Moon as darkness falls this evening. The Moon will slide away from the star during the night, but they will still be close as they set, around dawn.
The bright orange star Aldebaran marks the eye of Taurus, the bull. It’s low in the western sky as evening twilight fades. It stands a little to the left of Venus, the brilliant Evening Star.
Several famous constellations highlight this evening’s sky. At nightfall, the “twins” of Gemini stand almost straight up in the west. Leo, the lion, is high in the south, while Virgo and Hercules are just climbing into view in the east and northeast.
The faint constellations Corvus and Crater flow across the southern evening sky at this time of year. In mythology, the god Apollo sent Corvus, the crow, to fill Crater, the cup, with water. He failed, and the angry god hurled both crow and cup into the heavens.
As seen from the eastern United States, the Moon will occult Regulus this evening, passing in front of Leo’s brightest star and blocking it from view. The rest of the country will see an impressively close encounter between them.
Venus, the brilliant Evening Star, points the way to two other wonders right now: the planet Uranus and the Pleiades star cluster. The Pleiades looks like a tiny dipper to the right of Venus. Uranus is a little closer below Venus, but you need binoculars to see it.
The planet Jupiter is high in the west at nightfall. It looks like a brilliant star. In all the night sky, only the Moon and the planet Venus outshine it. The stars Pollux and Castor, the twins of Gemini, stand above it.
The planet Jupiter appears just below the Moon tonight. It looks like a brilliant star. Through binoculars, Jupiter’s four largest moons look like tiny stars quite close to the planet.
The planets Venus and Uranus cross paths in the evening sky this week. Venus is the Evening Star. Uranus is a couple of degrees to its upper left tonight, and is easy to see with binoculars. They will be even closer on Thursday, standing almost side by side.
