BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy 2017 - the year to look up at the sky!

What can you see in the sky this week? Sky & Telescope's Alan MacRobert has some suggestions. He includes a planet round-up for the week too. (1) Mercury is too close to the Sun to see. (2) Bright Venus is low in the east around dawn. (3) In the western evening twilight, Mars is in the far lower left of Capella high in the northwest. (4) Jupiter is high and bright in the south-southeast as the Sun sets. (5) Saturn rises late in the evening and glows highest in the south before dawn.

You can see two planets in the evening sky these days - bright Jupiter in Virgo, and Saturn in the southeastern part of Ophichus. I also saw a half Moon tonight, as well as Jupiter and Saturn.

Look out for Venus in the early morning sky. Deborah Byrd of EarthSky says

Steve Caridi has some sky hints for this week:

Bruce McClure reminds us to look out for the Strawberry full Moon. (Alas, no hope of seeing it tonight where I am, or seeing the sunset.)

Tonight (June 8th) the almost full Moon will be grouped with Saturn and the star Antares (red giant in the constellation Scorpius). McClure says

As for the full Moon,

Did you see the Strawberry Moon? I did. It was Friday (June 9) night when fairly low in the sky and thin cloud made it look rather misty.

Here's a lovely, I think pre-dawn, view of the Strawberry Moon from Ken Gallagher in Arizona, taken Friday morning. The color is because comes from the time of day - a traditional name is strawberry moon because June was a good time to gather ripe strawberries.

Saturn is at opposition tonight. The diagram shows that means that Earth is directly between Saturn and the Sun. That's when we're as close as we can be to Saturn. But that doesn't mean if you can't see it tonight, you should just forget it. Saturn will be easily visible throughout the summer months.
Bruce McClure & Deborah Byrd write

Alan MacRobert has suggestions for interesting things to see in the sky for the next week.

Friday, June 16

• By the time it's fully dark this week, Altair is shining well up in the east. A finger-width above it or to its upper left is its little sidekick Tarazed (Gamma Aquilae), actually an orange giant that's far in the background. Altair is 17 light-years from us; Tarazed is about 460.

Saturday, June 17

• The last-quarter Moon rises late tonight, around 1 a.m. daylight-saving time. Watch for it to breach the horizon to the lower right of the Great Square of Pegasus.

Sunday, June 18

• Here it is almost summer. But as twilight fades, look very low in the north-northwest for wintry Capella very out of season. The farther north you are, the higher it will appear. You may need binoculars. If you're as far north as Portland or Montreal, Capella is actually circumpolar.
Moon and Venus at dawn, June 20, 21, 22, 2017

The waning crescent Moon leapfrogs past Venus between the mornings of the 20th and 21st for North America.

Monday, June 19

• A double shadow transit occurs on Jupiter tonight from 10:04 to 10:38 p.m. EDT, when both Io and Europa are casting their tiny black shadows onto opposite sides of the planet's face.

• Dawn on Tuesday the 20th find Venus shining to right of the waning crescent Moon, as shown here.

Tuesday, June 20

• This is "Midsummer's Night," the shortest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Astronomical summer begins at the solstice, 12:24 a.m. EDT (4:24 UT) on the 21st; that's 9:24 p.m. on the 20th PDT.

The term "Midsummer's Night" is left over from when the seasons were commonly defined as beginning and ending around the cross-quarter days. Be like your ancestors — build a bonfire tonight and organize some all-night revelry while magic is afoot. Dawn will come soon enough — when you'll see Venus over the crescent Moon, as shown above.

Wednesday, June 21

• Do you know about the dark Propeller in the M13 star cluster in Hercules? With no Moon in the sky, take advantage of the dark to visit Sue French's six favorite summer deep-sky objects, which she features in the July Sky & Telescope, page 54.

Thursday, June 22

• Leo the Lion is a constellation of late winter and spring. But he's not gone yet. As twilight ends, look due west, rather low, for Regulus, his brightest and now lowest star: the forefoot of the Lion stick figure. The Sickle of Leo extends upper right from Regulus. The rest of the Lion's constellation figure extends for almost three fist-widths to the upper left, to end with his tail star, Denebola, the highest. He's walking down to the western horizon.

Friday, June 23

• This is the time of year when, after dark, the dim Little Dipper floats straight upward from Polaris (the end of its handle) — like a helium balloon on a string escaped from some summer evening party. Through light pollution, however, all you may see of the Little Dipper are Polaris at its bottom and Kochab, the lip of the Little Dipper's bowl, at the top.

• New Moon (exact at 10:31 p.m. EDT).

Saturday, June 24

• This is the time of year when the two brightest stars of summer, Arcturus and Vega, are equally high overhead soon after dark: Arcturus in the southwest, Vega toward the east.

Arcturus and Vega are 37 and 25 light-years away, respectively. They represent the two commonest types of naked-eye stars: a yellow-orange K giant and a white A main-sequence star. They're 150 and 50 times brighter than the Sun, respectively — which, combined with their nearness, is why they dominate the evening sky.

Monday, June 26
Steve Cariddi picks out some highlights for this week's night sky.

Friday, June 30th - unless it's overcast - look to the southwest as it gets dark. The Moon, Jupiter, and the star Spica are on show. It's a half Moon and Jupiter, the third brightest object in the night sky. Spica is the brightest star in the constellation Virgo.

The second brightest object (after the Moon) is Venus, which is an early morning object for the rest of this year.