june's nightly spectacles!!

the alignment of the objects in our night sky will provide some very nice early evening viewing for the rest of this month!

SATURDAY, JUNE 16: tomorrow night the waxing sliver moon hangs in the W-NW sky early in the evening. it sits below pollux, one of the two main stars of gemini, with the other, castor, to pollux's right. above the moon to the left is the dashingly bright planet venus. let your eyes follow farther up and to the left of venus and you'll spy a bright planet saturn and then the star regulus.

MONDAY, JUNE 18: saturday's noticeable alignment is a mere prelude to monday night's spectacular view! look to the west to see the bright venus, the crescent moon, saturn and regulus in a straight line from bottom to top!


*note* this picture depicts the view from the northern hemisphere. from the south, the alignment will go from bottom left to top right!!

TUESDAY, JUNE 19: the very next evening, venus and saturn will still be bright and a little closer together, but you'll notice the disappearance of the star regulus as the growing moon occults it by passing right in front of it!

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20: the line-up evolves. from lower right to upper left: venus, saturn, regulus, la luna. also, in the S-SE, you can see jupiter near the star antares. saturn and venus will not be visible in our sky anymore by august, but jupiter will remain over the next several months! any telescope will easily reveal 4 of jupiter's moons: io, europa, ganymede and callisto.

THURSDAY, JUNE 21: summer officially begins in the northern hemisphere on june 21, the summer solstice, as the north pole points toward the sun. all you in the north can enjoy the longest day of the year (while i try to defrost from the snow storm occuring on this mountain top!)!

SATURDAY, JUNE 30: the biggest show occurs at the very end of june. not only is june 30th the full moon (a blue moon for some), but venus and saturn will appear 0.7 degrees apart in the western sky! for reference, the angular diameter of the full moon on the sky is half a degree. the two planets will be very bright and very close to each other, but they will set soon after sunset so make sure you go outside to enjoy a romantic sunset and planetary spectacle!

keep looking up and enjoy!