Welcome to June, warmer weather, and the start of summer. Our nights may be shorter, with darkness coming later, but the beauty of our night skies makes the wait worthwhile.
Summer begins for us on June 20, the summer solstice. On that date, the sun will be as far north as it gets in our sky, and will be directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer.
We’ll have about 15 hours and 45 minutes of daylight, with the sun rising at about 5:15 a.m., and not setting until about 9 p.m.
Last month I mentioned that Mercury was in good position to view, late in the month. That continues in June. In fact, June 4 will be the best, when the solar system’s innermost planet is at its greatest elongation from the sun, and highest in our evening sky.
After June 4, Mercury will drop lower in the sky as we see it, closer to the sun and more difficult to view.
At the start of June, we will have a bright, waxing gibbous moon in the constellation Virgo, just above the bright star Spica. Full moon will follow on June 5, with our natural satellite located just above the bright star Antares in the constellation Sagittarius.
On June 9-10, the Moon will join the bright planets Jupiter and Saturn, low in the south before sunrise. On June 12-13, the moon will serve as a beacon for nearby Mars in the southeastern morning sky.
New Moon will be on June 20. On June 28-29, the moon will be back near Spica, in the southern evening sky.
If staying up late is not your thing, try finding the faint crescent moon just after new moon, on June 22. You’ll need a fairly good view of the western horizon.
At sunset (about 9 p.m.), the moon will be about 12 degrees above the horizon, in the west-northwest.
How high is 12 degrees? If you extend your arm and make a fist, your fist covers about 10 degrees, so think of it as a bit more than a fist-width above the horizon. Binoculars may help locate it in the still bright sky.
June 23 will be easiest, with the moon now some 20 degrees high.
And yes, speaking of binoculars, I have a binocular object for June. Look for the bright star Mizar, in the handle of the Big Dipper (part of the constellation Ursa Major). Find the Big Dipper, and locate Mizar as the middle star in the handle.
Mizar is bright, so you don’t need to wait until total darkness to see it well, helpful in this month of short nights.
If you look very close, with your naked eye, you may detect a faint star right next to Mizar. That companion is Alcor.
Train your binoculars on Mizar, and you will see that it is really two closely-spaced stars. Alcor will also be visible, as a nearby bright star.
And there are even more stars in the system, although you cannot see them — Mizar and its near companion are part of a set of four stars orbiting each other, and Alcor has a faint companion as well. So there are a total of six stars in the gravitationally-bound system.
The bright planets are still absent from the evening sky. Venus, which has been visible in the western evening sky, will pass between Earth and the sun in early June. After about mid-month, you will be able to see it low in the east, now in the morning. On June 19, it will be near the thin crescent moon, low in the northeast at sunrise.
Jupiter and Saturn remain best visible before sunrise in the south, but they both will be peeking above the horizon in the evening too, after about 11 p.m., late in the month.
More about them next month, as they move into our evening sky.
Mars remains a morning-sky object; it is growing closer to us, and will be at its closest this year in October.
Summer constellations are beginning to enter our night skies.
Cygnus, the Swan, nestled in the summer Milky Way, is above the eastern horizon by 10 p.m. Just above Cygnus is the bright star Vega, in the little constellation Lyra. They will loom higher in the sky later in the summer.
Spring constellations, such as Leo the Lion, are now low in the west. It is fun to watch the march of stars across our night skies as the seasons change.
Enjoy the experience of June’s night skies!
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