For June 2023, the “Honeymoon,” June’s Full Moon, is on June 3. The last quarter moon passed below Saturn on June 10 rising after midnight. The waning crescent sits just to the lower left of Jupiter at dawn on June 14. It will be just above Mercury about 40 minutes before sunrise on June 16. It is new on June 18. Back in the evening sky, the waning crescent makes a fine triangle in the west with brilliant Venus to the lower left of it and much fainter Mars to the upper left of both of them. Summer begins with the Summer Solstice at 9:58 CDT on June 21, the longest day of the year. We get about 14 hours of daylight now. The first quarter moon is June 24.
For a detailed map of northern hemisphere skies visit skymaps.com.
This June, Mercury lies between us and the sun until midmonth, when it moves into the dawn sky just below the crescent moon on June 16. Brilliant Venus dominates the dusk for a few more weeks, to pass between us and the Sun in July. It is the greatest eastern elongation, appearing half-lit in telescopes, on June 3. It seems to be chasing Mars to its upper left, and never quite catches up. They are closest, 3.6 degrees apart, at month’s end, but by then, Venus is retrograding back toward the Sun and now appears only 32% lit crescent. It is now 33” of arc across, and this crescent will be easily observable in hand-held binoculars well into July. It is easiest to see this phase in bright twilight, before the planet, now at its brightest, overwhelms the eye’s view. Mars is getting closer to the Sun each evening, and like Venus, will disappear behind the Sun by July. Jupiter and Saturn are both in the dawn sky now, and will not get back for evening observing until this fall.
The Big Dipper is almost overhead as twilight falls, and its pointers take you north to the Pole Star. Taking the arc in the Dipper’s handle, we “arc” southeast to bright orange Arcturus, the brightest star of Spring. Cooler than our yellow Sun, and much poorer in heavy elements, some believe its strange motion reveals it to be an invading star from another smaller galaxy, now colliding with the Milky Way in Sagittarius in the summer sky. Moving almost perpendicular to the plane of our Milky Way, Arcturus was the first star in the sky where its proper motion across the historic sky was noted, by Edmund Halley.
Northeast of Lyra is Cygnus, the Swan, flying down the Milky Way. Its bright star Deneb, at the top of the “northern cross” is one of the luminaries of the Galaxy, about 50,000 times more luminous than our Sun and around 3,000 light years distant.
To the east, Altair is the third bright star of the summer triangle. It lies in Aquila the Eagle, and is much closer than Deneb; it lies within about 13 light-years of our Sun. Use your binocs to pick up many clusters in this rich region of our own Cygnus spiral arm rising now in the east.
To the south, Antares is well up at sunset in Scorpius. It appears reddish (its Greek name means rival of Ares or Mars to the Latins) because it is half as hot as our yellow Sun; it is bright because it is a bloated red supergiant, big enough to swallow up our solar system all the way out to Saturn’s orbit. Scorpius is the brightest constellation in the sky, with 13 stars brighter than the pole star Polaris. Note the fine naked eye clusters M-6 and M-7, just to the left of the Scorpion’s tail.
Just a little east of the Scorpion’s tail is the teapot shape of Sagittarius, which lies toward the center of the Milky Way. From a dark sky site, you can pick out the fine stellar nursery, M-8, the Lagoon Nebula, like a cloud of steam coming out of the teapot’s spout.
The Escambia Amateur Astronomers return to Casino Beach for our Pavilion Stargaze Season on the first quarter moon. Meet us south of the famed Beach Ball Water Tower and bring your smartphone to image the Sun (before sunset with our solar scopes), Moon, and constellations. We have free star charts and will show you what’s up. The gazes, if clear skies permit, will be on Fridays and Saturdays for June 23-24, July 28-29, August 25-26, and ending on September 22-23. If possible, download the Unistellar and Nocturne apps for your smartphones to capture live images with our WiFi-enabled eVscopes. For deep skies with much less light pollution, on the Saturdays of the third quarter moon, we continue our cooperation with the Florida State Parks at Big Lagoon State Park. Our gazes for best imaging of the Milky Way, constellations, and other galaxies are on these Saturdays: June 10, July 8, August 12 (the Perseid Meteor Shower), and September 9. Clear skies permitting.
For more information on the Escambia Amateur Astronomers, join us on Facebook or visit our website. For stargaze updates, call Wayne Wooten at (850) 291-9334.
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