Welcome to June, the month of the summer solstice, when summer begins. Darkness comes late, but in the evening sky you can still spot reddish Mars, watch its conjunction with a bright star mid-month, or just marvel at the always-changing pattern of constellations in the night sky. There is always something to see!
Summer begins on the summer solstice, for us occurring on June 20. At that time, the Sun is as far north as it gets, about 67 degrees above the horizon at midday. We’ll have our longest day, with sunrise at about 5:15 a.m., and sunset at about 9 p.m. After the 20th, the Sun will slowly begin to drop lower in the sky, and days will begin to shorten. It will start slowly though; around the solstices, the change in the length of day is pretty small. In fact, the word solstice is derived from a Latin term roughly meaning “sun standing still.” That is because, around the solstice, the Sun’s movement in its altitude above the horizon is very slight.
The major planets have pretty much left the evening sky in June. Mars is still visible in the southwest, but is growing farther away and becoming fainter. By the end of June, Mars will be some 179 million miles from us, about twice as far as we are from the Sun. Mars is still easily visible to the naked eye though, and still has a reddish color. June presents a good time to note how the planets move across the sky in relation to the stars. Look for Mars, and see if you can also spot the bright star Regulus, in the constellation Leo. A good way to find Regulus is to look for the thin crescent Moon on June 1, and you’ll find Regulus right below it. Mars will be to the right of Regulus, and a bit lower in the sky. As the month progresses, Mars will move closer to Regulus, until on the 17th, Mars will lie just above Regulus. By the end of June, Mars will have moved noticeably to the east (left) of the bright star.
Jupiter and Mercury are also in the evening sky, although very low in the west. Look for bright Jupiter very low in the west-northwest after sunset. By mid-month it will be getting hard to spot. Mercury is very low in the west at the start of June, but will rise higher as the month progresses. Look for Jupiter and Mercury to be very close to each other on June 7. They should be easy to spot. After the 7th, Mercury will grow higher in the sky during June, although always low in the west. See if you can spot it; many people have never seen Mercury.
If you are up early, Venus and Saturn are prominent in our eastern morning sky. Venus remains low in the east for all of June. Saturn gradually moves higher in the sky, and moves to the southeast by the end of the month.
June’s full Moon comes on the 11th, with new Moon following on June 25. As already mentioned, the Moon will be close to Regulus on June 1. The waxing gibbous Moon will pass the bright star Spica on the nights of June 5-6, and will be just to the right of the bright star Antares on the 9th. The Moon will pass Saturn in the morning sky on June 1-18. On the 29th, the Moon will be back in the evening sky, just to the left of Mars.
The march of constellations across the night sky continues in June. Spring constellations, such as Leo and Cancer, are dropping low in the western sky. In the East, Lyra, with its bright star Vega, and Cygnus the Swan are both well above the horizon as skies darken. Looking north, Ursa major, with the Big Dipper, lies to the west of Polaris, the north star. The star at the tip of the Big Dipper, Alkaid, is almost directly overhead in June.
•••
Enjoy June’s night skies!
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.