Caoimhín's Content

Today, we are going to be taking a look at the night sky for the month of June. We have already looked at the night sky in June to various degrees, mostly looking at how little of a night we actually get in June, but we’re going to ignore that for this show and concentrate on what we can actually see.

Beginning early in the month, just as the Sun is going down, you might catch Jupiter above the sunset. Thanks to the angle of the Sun and all of the orange-yellow glow of sunset, it is going to be very hard for us to see Jupiter here in Ireland, but if you are a little bit closer to the equator, Jupiter is still up as the Sun is going down. However, it’s not in as good a position as Mars. Mars is significantly higher in the sky, further away from sunset. Mars is right next to the Moon on the 1st of June, but of course that distance will increase over the following few days. Mars is going to keep sinking down towards the sunset, whereas the Moon will keep pushing away across the sky. Given the time of year, we have to wait quite a while for it to get dark, but even before it gets dark we can still see the brighter stars and we can see some of the more famous objects. Even in early twilight, we can follow the arc of the handle of the Plough down to the bright star Arcturus and then spike on to Spica in Virgo. We can see the shape of Leo, though the sort of trapezium body of Leo is a little easier to spot than the Sickle of Leo. The Sickle end of Leo is closer to the sunset, so it will come out just a little bit later. The Moon is also in the sickle of Leo, so that will make it a little bit harder to see. Now that we’re so close to midsummer, we’ve got Scorpius above the horizon just as soon as the Sun sets. The summer triangle is nice and clear as well, the arms of Cygnus are visible as well by a little after 11 o’clock. Of course all of this is going to be a visible little bit later than when we would similar things in wintertime.

We can see that the Plough or the Big Dipper nice and high in the sky, a little bit to the west of the North Star. Cassiopeia is very low early in the night, meaning it will rise to the east of the North Star as we come through to morning time, whereas the Plough or the Big Dipper will be coming down on the opposite side. If you do want to go stargazing anytime around midsummer, close to midnight is best. Here in Ireland, closer to the physical midnight of 1:30 is ideal, but the exact time will vary by location. This is assuming a city view still, and looking at things from the city, so we’re always going to be limited by a little bit of light pollution. As such, having a little bit of sunlight in the sky isn’t going to make a huge difference, we’re already losing so much from light pollution, losing a little bit more due to the glow of the Sun doesn’t matter too much, and it is only a little bit. Moving through the night still, we’re looking at very close to sunrise, almost 3 o’clock in the morning. If you plan on getting up with the sunrise on the longest day of the year, on the summer solstice, trying a little bit earlier in the month can be good practice. Sagittarius will be visible, low to the south, with the summer triangle nice and high in the sky. Even from a city, even on midsummer, pointing your telescope or your binoculars somewhere into the summer triangle, or lower down towards Sagittarius, should let you see some parts of the Milky Way and maybe some nebulae. Just before the sky gets too bright, we’ll get the Square of Pegasus reasonably above the horizon, leading to the the constellation of Andromeda and the Andromeda Galaxy Just under Cassiopeia.

As the Sun is coming up, we have Venus and Saturn. Saturn in particular is going to get easier and easier to see over the course of the month, but Venus is going to be much more prominent. Venus is still moving out away from the Sun early in the month, but because we’re getting so close to midsummer, the sunrise is also getting earlier and earlier. Venus, by virtue of its brightness, is still really easy to see, even if it is coming up exactly on midsummer’s morning, even with the glow of the Sun. Venus remains far enough from the Sun and in the sky for long enough for quite a while, so we still have plenty of time to enjoy it. We can comfortably move out into the future, all the way into August, and Venus will still be there in the morning. Venus’s year is shorter than ours, but not by a lot, Venus’s year is just little shorter than the Earth’s. At 225 earth days, the Venusian year is closer to the length of our year than our year is to Mars’s year, at 687 days. As we push a little bit closer to the middle of June, Saturn is visible in a good level of darkness, as early as 3 o’clock. Especially if you want to take a closer look at Saturn, waiting for later in the month when Saturn will be higher while the sky is darker is best. Particularly as we move past the summer solstice, we’ve got Saturn nice and high in a good level of darkness at 3 o’clock. You can even go a little bit earlier and Saturn will still be visible, even 2:45 by late June. However, Saturn’s Rings are not a great angle to be seen at the moment.

Moving right through now to the end of the month, by the end of the month we’re past the summer solstice. We will be after going through the longest day of the year, so from that point forward the days will be getting shorter and the nights will be getting longer. Looking back to sunset at the end of the month, and I almost caught this in a previous piece, we might see Mercury. Mercury does appear to be there around the 31st, though it is a little easier a little earlier in the month. Mercury will reach its greatest elongation on the 4th of July this year, but thanks to the angle of sunset it is possible to see it for a good portion of late June. Good for Mercury at least, which is about a week. Mercury’s visible for a few of the nights around the solstice, a few nights before and a few nights after. Mercury is incredibly tricky to catch under the best of conditions, and sunset on the summer solstice is certainly not the best of conditions to see a faint little planet like Mercury, but it will be there. If you’re watching the sunset on the summer solstice or around the summer solstice, Mercury will be just above the horizon as the Sun goes down, however it’s incredibly low, so I recommend heading towards the coast. Here in Ireland at least, it’s often nice to head to the beach on the night of the summer solstice because it’s bright and warm for quite a long period of time. If you are at the coast looking for Mercury over in almost the northwest as the Sun is setting, you’ll be in with a better chance of seeing it than someone in a built up area. Also by the end of the month, Mars is also pretty low, significantly lower than it was at the start of the month. Of course, that’s due to the Earth and Mars, we’re both moving around the Sun together.

Looking due south, Arcturus and Spica are already way over in the southwest, it is Scorpius that’s in our due south position. That means the Milky Way is rising right above the south at midnight, but of course there’s the issue of extra light from the Sun. Once we push forward towards morning time, as I’ve mentioned, Saturn is a little bit further from the Sun and Venus still holding prominent. What we’re do going to to do instead is head out to the countryside and see what the sky looks like, first, in the early part of June again, and then we’ll come back to the early part of the month. We do want to come quite early in the month, so we’re avoiding that bright glow of the Full Moon, we don’t want that to get in the way too much. In the countryside, as the Sun sets, Jupiter should be easier to see. Jupiter is going to get blocked out by a tree in Stellarium s simulated sky, but Jupiter is still visible to the naked eye a good few degrees above the horizon. It does come out quite early, while the sky is still quite bright, and in the countryside, it is a prominent bright dot, much brighter than Mars, even though it is quite low to the horizon.

Once the sky starts getting darker, in a truly dark sky, thousands of stars become visible. I’m using a perfect Bortle Class 1 dark sky, quite difficult to achieve under normal conditions. You really have to be in a true dark sky to get a perfect view in midsummer. Vesta is high to the south, along the ecliptic, though it isn’t easily visible to the naked eye. However, in a dark sky if you know where to look, even with a big pair of binoculars, Vesta is a target. Ceres is much larger, but not necessarily as easy to see well, it’s not as bright from the Earth. As soon as we switch to a binocular view, immediately we can see the little ball of Vesta. If you go out on a couple of different nights, you can see how it moves differently to the stars. That wandering across the sky, that’s what makes it a planetes, a wanderer, or an asteroid in this case. That motion is what shows us that it’s a part of our solar system, it moves differently to that background of stars outside of our solar system. It is potentially a binoculars target, even though it isn’t as big as Ceres. It is quite close to us in the asteroid belt, still further away than Mars, but much closer than the distant dwarf planets, making Vesta a reasonable target.

Just around true physical midnight for us here in Ireland, we’ve got a clear view of the Milky Way, from a perfectly dark sky. Our physical midnight is later than midnight on the clock, because we are west of the middle of our time zone. You can take a look at your time zone and see how close to the center of it you are, if you’re far from the center of your time zone, you will need to adjust the time a little bit for physical midnight. If you live in an area that does daylight savings, you may have to adjust it by another hour. Under perfect conditions, the glow of the Milky Way is stretching perfectly across the sky at this time of year. It is one of the best times of the year to see the whole thing with your eye. However, it’s visible for such a short length of time, and with the extra light in the sky from the Sun, for photography, it may not be the best.

We can see Sagittarius looking really clear and prominent low on the horizon, we can see the lower part of the teapot shape. At other times of the year, earlier in the year for example, more of Sagittarius would be hidden a little bit by the horizon, but it’s really coming into view now. Large parts of the whole constellation are still under the horizon for us in Ireland, but at least the core teapot shape is easier to see. This is followed by Venus and Saturn again in the morning. We’ll push right through to the end of the month again. This conveniently avoids the Moon, because we’re getting our Full Moon at around the 12th, in the middle of the month. All around the actual middle of the month, a few days before the solstice, that’s when the Moon is going to be in the sky, providing extra light. By the end of the month, the Moon is new again and out of the way. We can see the Pleiades coming back into the morning sky as well. Seeing the Pleiades coming back in the morning is another sign that we’re coming up to the solstice. We use the summer triangle, or at least it was used in the Northwestern Hemisphere, as a way of marking out when summer was coming and going. The Pleiades and other groups of stars, were used in other parts of the world. In the Southern Hemisphere, the Summer Triangle, may not be as clear, especially if you’re far in the Southern Hemisphere, so other groups of stars were also used for measuring that time of year.

Back at the end of the month, Mercury is visible again. Given the time of sunset, Mercury it looks like around the 21st, around the solstice, you may have a better chance of seeing Mercury, even though it’s elongation is the following month. Adjusting for the time of sunset may change this. You’ll have a better chance of seeing it if you’re in the countryside, everything is better in the countryside. Moving right up to the 30th again and letting the sky get dark, we’re past the solstice, so true darkness starts kicking in as early as 12:20, which is still before physical midnight for us here in Ireland. We’re still going to be using summertime for another little while, so Our physical midnight will still be closer to 1:30. We can see the glow of the Milky Way, really perfectly. There’s really nothing wrong with the view despite the glow of twilight. There will still be a little sunlight in the north, but if you’re using your naked eye in a truly dark sky, the Milky Way is rising right up out of the south as we come to 1 o’clock in the morning. It’s a nice, memorable time, if you set an alarm for 12:30 and head outside, by the time you’re out there at 1 o’clock, the Milky Way will be stretching right overhead. Continuing to move towards morning, we can see it the glow starting to disappear as we come to 3 o’ clock. It’s not in the sky for very long, but it is in that perfect position. In the morning, you may briefly see Uranus through a telescope, just under the Pleiades. Uranus is still in that same position, Uranus orbits the Sun so slowly that its position relative to the stars changes slowly as well. Back into sunrise, we’ve still got Venus and Saturn, even clearer from the countryside.

I hope you enjoyed this less solstice related overview of what we are going to see in June. If you did enjoy this piece, then please do like it, and if you like this kind of content, please subscribe to this website and my YouTube channel. Thank you very much for watching and hopefully I’ll see you back here next time.