Some daily events in the changing sky for June 6 14.
Friday, June 6
Saturday, June 7
Sunday, June 8
Monday, June 9
Tuesday, June 10
Wednesday, June 11
Thursday, June 12
For all of Jupiter's satellite phenomena this month, good worldwide, see the June Sky & Telescope, page 58.
Friday, June 13
And oh yes, the Moon is only 1.3 light-seconds away.
Saturday, June 14
Want to become a better amateur astronomer? Learn your way around the constellations. They're the key to locating everything fainter and deeper to hunt with binoculars or a telescope. For an easy-to-use constellation guide covering the whole evening sky, use the big monthly foldout map in each issue of Sky & Telescope, the essential magazine of astronomy. Or download our free Getting Started in Astronomy booklet (which only has bimonthly maps).
Once you get a telescope, to put it to good use you'll need a detailed, large-scale sky atlas (set of maps; the standards are Sky Atlas 2000.0 or the smaller Pocket Sky Atlas) and good deep-sky guidebooks (such as Sky Atlas 2000.0 Companion by Strong and Sinnott, the even more detailed Night Sky Observer's Guide by Kepple and Sanner, or the classic Burnham's Celestial Handbook). Read how to use them effectively.
More beginners' tips: "How to Start Right in Astronomy".
This Week's Planet Roundup
Mercury and Venus are lost in the glare of the Sun. Mercury is on the near side of the Sun (inferior conjunction June 7th), and Venus is on the far side of the Sun (superior conjunction June 9th).
Mars (magnitude +1.6, in Cancer) shines high in the west after dark, to the lower right of the Saturn-and-Regulus couple as shown at the top of this page. Mars is drawing nearer to them every week. They'll have a close get-together in early July.
In a telescope, Mars is a minuscule 4.9 arcseconds wide a very tiny blob. The Mars Phoenix Lander is near the north polar cap.
Jupiter (magnitude 2.6, in eastern Sagittarius) rises around 10 or 11 p.m. daylight saving time, left of the Sagittarius Teapot. It's highest in the south, and offering the sharpest views, before and during dawn.
Saturn (magnitude +0.7, in Leo) glows in the southwest after dark, about 3° upper left of fainter Regulus (magnitude +1.4), as shown at the top of the page. They're gradually getting wider apart.
Uranus and Neptune (magnitudes 6 and 8, respectively, in Aquarius and Capricornus) are in the southeast before dawn. Use our article and finder charts.
Pluto (magnitude 14.0, in northwestern Sagittarius) is well up in the southeast by 11 or midnight. It comes to opposition on June 20th. If you've got a big scope and ambition to match, here's our article and finder chart.
All descriptions that relate to your horizon or zenith including the words up, down, right, and left are written for the world's mid-northern latitudes. Descriptions that also depend on longitude (mainly Moon positions) are for North America. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) equals Universal Time (UT, UTC, or GMT) minus 4 hours.
To be sure to get the current Sky at a Glance, bookmark this URL:
If pictures fail to load, refresh the page. If they still fail to load, change the 1 at the end of the URL to any other character and try again.