June's Guide To The Sky

Planets this month

The June planets are much the same as last months with Venus and Mars low in the Western evening sky just as the Sun sets. Saturn creeps up at 2:00am, Jupiter at 3:30am just as the morning sunrise starts lighting up the sky. Mercury and Uranus are the last to pop up from the East, but are too close to the Sun for us to see them at the moment. Neptune is in between Saturn and Jupiter below the pentagon that represents the right-hand fish of is Pisces, but again, not really in a great place to spot.

Now, this time of year there is only really around 2 hours of true darkness each night in the UK. To make the most of this, the moon is out of the way from around the 12th - 23rd of June. So it's the best time to get out and look for those summer galaxies and nebula.

It's still noctilucent cloud season, so pop out around 90 - 120mins before sunrise or after sunset to see if you can spot these cool clouds made up of frozen particles of meteor dust.

Mars sits in the middle of the cool bee-hive cluster making it have a bright red shining companion amongst the stars. A wonderful swarm of some 1,000 stars, it's one of the closest clusters at 577 lightyears, and all the stars in it were created in the same nebula.

The Moon rises around 9:20pm with the red star Antares slowly appearing below it. Over the course of the night, the star will seem to move up to its right, then back down away from it as they move in the sky. Antares is one of the largest known stars, having several hundred times the diameter of our Sun in the constellation of the scorpion.

Venus finally reaches its greatest elongation, meaning its at its farthest point from the Sun in our skies. It will now start heading back towards the Sun, getting lower in our skies. Through a scope, it will appear to be around the half phase.

I have read about a cool Moon feature, or phenomenon, known as Zeno's steps. As the Moon tilts this side towards us and the light starts to shift off of it, a crater called, Zeno, will be visible to the top right of the Moon. You may see 3 steps heading down towards this crater, which was photographed by, Danny Caes, of the Public Observatory of Ghent-Belgium. It may be worth a look to see if you can spot them at some point on tonight's moon.

Venus is now atop of the the awesome bee-hive cluster in the evening sky - just as the Sun sets. You will need a clear north-western horizon as it will be twilight and low in the sky. A pair of binoculars will be best to view them together. Just be careful with the setting Sun.

The thin crescent Moon sits next to the gas giant Jupiter in the early morning sky just before sunrise. See if you can spot the crater, Grimaldi, which should easily be visible. Although, there is debate as to whether it is a crater or a small Mare with it's age not being less than 3.9 billion years.

The earliest sunrise of the year occurs today with the Sun rising at 4:38am from the centre of the UK. Only by a few seconds compared to the following days, but at least it will be light when we wake up for a while yet.

With that, maybe it's time to spot the summer triangle which is created by some of the brightest summer stars. Deneb in Cygnus, the swan, Vega in Lyra, the harp and Altair in Aquila the eagle. Making a line between these stars creates a huge triangle in the summer sky.

Happy Summer Solstice! This is the day the Sun reaches its most northernly point in the sky and a time of celebration for our ancestors who created whole monuments in celebration of the changing seasons.

Watch the thin crescent Moon meet Venus and Mars in the evening sky. As it grows in brightness, why not download and complete our Moon Observation Journal. Watch and draw the phases of the Moon over the month. Something cool to do with the kids or your partner.

The Moon catches up to the red star Antares again with it being to its left as the Sun sets. Over the night, the moon will gradually get closer to the star before setting around 1:30am - ending the month as we started it.

Clear skies guys, and remember... there's a billion worlds in your back garden!