The Sky This Week for June 10 to June 19A virtual who's-who of our planetary neighbors will be out in the sky this week for you to find.By Richard Talcott | Published: Friday, June 10, 2016

NASA

Friday, June 10

• Magnificent Saturn reached its peak just a week ago, when it appeared opposite the Sun in the sky, and our view of the ringed planet remains spectacular. It is on display nearly all night among the background stars of southern Ophiuchus, hanging in the southeastern sky as darkness falls and climbing high in the south by midnight local daylight time. Saturn continues to shine brightly, too, at magnitude 0.0. When viewed through a telescope, the dramatic ring system spans 42" and tilts 26° to our line of sight, while the planet’s family of moderately bright moons appears next to the gorgeous world.

Saturday, June 11

• A half-lit Moon hangs about 4° to Jupiter’s left in this evening’s sky. The pair becomes visible within a half-hour after sunset (though the Moon shows up in the daytime sky during the afternoon) and remains on view until 1 a.m. local daylight time. The Moon officially hits First Quarter phase at 4:10 a.m. EDT tomorrow morning.

Sunday, June 12

• Mars remains near its peak all this week. The Red Planet reached opposition on May 22 and made its closest approach to Earth (at a distance of 46.8 million miles [75.3 million kilometers]) on the 30th. Mars appears in the southeastern sky as darkness falls and grows more prominent as the evening wears on and it climbs higher. By 11 p.m. local daylight time, it stands one-third of the way to the zenith in the south against the backdrop of southern Libra. The world shines at magnitude –1.8, just a hair dimmer than the brightest point of light in the sky, Jupiter. When viewed through a telescope, Mars’ orange-red disk spans 18". Look for subtle dark markings along with a whitish north polar cap.

• For people who live near 35° north latitude, today marks the earliest sunrise of the year. Although the Northern Hemisphere’s longest day doesn’t occur until Earth’s summer solstice on June 20, earliest sunrise happens several days before and latest sunset several days after. The specific dates depend on your latitude, however. In general, earliest sunrise occurs closer to the solstice the farther north you live.

NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington

Monday, June 13

• Brilliant Jupiter appears high in the southwest as darkness falls and remains on display until 1 a.m. local daylight time. The giant planet shines at magnitude –2.0 — 0.2 magnitude brighter than Mars blazing in the southeast — against the backdrop of southern Leo the Lion. Jupiter appears equally dazzling through a telescope, which reveals a wealth of atmospheric features on a disk that spans 36". Although such detail appears on every clear evening, a rare treat awaits observers tonight when two moons disappear within minutes of each other. Early this evening, Io and Ganymede both lurk near Jupiter’s western limb. Ganymede passes behind the limb at 12:35 a.m. EDT with Io following 10 minutes later.

Tuesday, June 14

• Neptune’s eastward motion against the background stars comes to a halt at 4 a.m. EDT. This so-called stationary point marks the beginning of the best period to observe an outer planet. Neptune rises around 1 a.m. local daylight time and appears nearly 30° high in the southeast as morning twilight commences. The magnitude 7.9 planet lies in Aquarius, some 0.5° southeast of 4th-magnitude Lambda (l) Aquarii, and doesn’t move noticeably all week. You’ll need binoculars to spy Neptune and a telescope to see its blue-gray disk, which spans 2.3".

Wednesday, June 15

• Mercury shines brightly in morning twilight this week, standing 6° high in the east-northeast a half-hour before sunrise today. The inner planet shines at magnitude –0.3 and shows up easily through binoculars if you have an unobstructed horizon. When viewed through a telescope, Mercury appears 7" across and slightly more than half-lit.

• The Moon reaches apogee, the farthest point in its orbit around Earth, at 8:00 a.m. EDT. It then lies 251,670 miles (405,024 kilometers) from Earth’s center.

WikedKentaur / Wikimedia Commons

Thursday, June 16

• The conspicuous Summer Triangle asterism dominates the eastern sky in late evening. Vega, the triangle’s brightest member, shines at magnitude 0.0 and stands highest of the three stars. To its lower left lies Deneb; at magnitude 1.3, it’s the faintest of the trio. Magnitude 0.8 Altair completes the bright asterism. Despite its name, the Summer Triangle appears prominent from late spring until the onset of winter.

Friday, June 17

• The waxing gibbous Moon forms the apex of a flat isosceles triangle with Mars and Saturn tonight. The Moon stands highest and about 10° from both planets; Mars and Saturn lie approximately 18° apart.

Saturday, June 18

• The Moon passes 3° due north of Saturn at 8 p.m. EDT. For observers in North America, the two appear between 3° and 5° apart throughout the night.

Sunday, June 19

• Full Moon officially arrives at 7:02 a.m. EDT tomorrow morning, but it looks completely illuminated throughout the night. It appears low in the southeast as the Sun sets and reaches its peak in the south around 1 a.m. local daylight time. For North American observers, the Full Moon crosses from Ophiuchus the Serpent-bearer into Sagittarius the Archer during the evening hours.

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, June 10 – 18By: Alan MacRobert | June 10, 2016

Watch the Moon step past Regulus and Jupiter. . .

...while Mars and Saturn straddle the head of Scorpius in the southeast .

Friday, June 10• This evening the Moon poses partway between Jupiter to its upper left and fainter Regulus to its right, as shown here.

• Turn binoculars or a telescope on Jupiter, and you'll find 5th-magnitude Chi Leonis some 0.1° to its north, looking like an out-of-place Galilean satellite.

Saturday, June 11• The first-quarter Moon shines fairly close to Jupiter this evening (about 4° to Jupiter's left), as shown here. But looks deceive! Jupiter is 40 times larger in diameter than the Moon, and it's currently 2,100 times farther away.

Sunday, June 12• The Moon this evening forms a great, nearly straight line with Spica to its left, and Jupiter and Regulus to its lower right.

Monday, June 13• If you turn your scope to the Moon this evening, also look in on the close double star Gamma Virginis (Porrima), just 2° to 4° to its right (for North America). Gamma Vir's identical components, both magnitude 3.5, are currently 2.5 arcseconds apart. Use high power.

Tuesday, June 14• Look for 1st-magnitude Spica about 4° below the Moon this evening (for North America). High above them shines Arcturus.

Wednesday, June 15• Io reappears from eclipse out of Jupiter's shadow around 10:46 p.m. EDT, good timing for the Eastern time zone. A small telescope will show it gradually swelling into view, just east of the planet.

As it waxes toward full, the Moon joints the Mars-Saturn-Antares show. (The Moon's positions in these scenes is always exact for the middle of North America.)

Thursday, June 16• Mars shines below the gibbous Moon this evening, as shown here; they're fellow travelers across the sky tonight. Never mind that Mars is 200 times farther away.

Friday, June 17• The Moon, Mars, and Saturn make a wide, flattish triangle tonight, as shown here. The longest side connects the two planets, 18° apart.

• A 3-inch telescope will show Saturn's biggest and brightest moon: Titan, magnitude 8.5. Tonight it's west of Saturn, by about four times the length of Saturn's rings. Can you see Titan's orange tint through the moonlight?

Saturday, June 18• Saturn and the almost-full Moon are 3° to 5° apart (for North America). Saturn is the most distant bright planet, 3,400 times farther away than the Moon tonight.

This Week's Planet Roundup

On June 1st, ten days after Mars's opposition and one day after its closest approach, Christopher Go used his planetary-imaging setup and 14-inch scope to take this image of Syrtis Major almost dead center, at 13:59 UT. (South is up.) He is in the Philippines, on the opposite side of the world from the Americas, so our best Mars observing times are about 12 hours out of sync with his. Mars rotates in 24 hours 37 minutes, remarkably similar to Earth's rotation period. So during the week or so that the Philippines see this very marked-up side of Mars, we see the opposite, duller side of it at our best observing times.

Jupiter as imaged by Christopher Go on May 15th. South is up. The Great Red Spot remains vivid. Dark material lines the Red Spot Hollow.

Saturn's rings are wide open this season, tipped 26° to our line of sight and extending above the planet's north and south poles. Damian Peach took this image with a 14-inch Schmidt-Cass on March 19th. South is up.

Mercury (about magnitude –0.2) is having a low apparition in the dawn. You can use binoculars to try for it just above the east-northeast horizon 20 or 30 minutes before sunrise.

Venus is hidden in the glare of the Sun.

Mars (magnitude –1.7, in Libra) remains big and bright; it was closest to Earth on May 30th. It's the yellow-orange thing shining in the southeast at nightfall, and due south later at night. After dark, yellow Mars shines nearly as intensely as white Jupiter in the southwest.

Saturn and Antares lie to Mars's east: lower left at dusk. The Mars-Antares-Saturn triangle stands highest in the south around 11 or midnight daylight-saving time. This is when the planets are likely to appear sharpest in a telescope.

Mars shrinks a little this week, from 18.3 to 17.7 arcseconds in diameter. Get your best looks while you can. See our telescopic guide to Mars in the April Sky & Telescope, page 48, or the version online. And set our Mars Profiler for your time and date.

Jupiter (magnitude –2.0, in southern Leo) stands in the southwest during twilight. It moves lower left as the evening progresses. See our telescopic guide to Jupiter in the March Sky & Telescope, page 48.

Saturn (magnitude +0.1, in southern Ophiuchus) the brightest object well east of Mars. To Saturn's lower right is fainter Antares. See our telescopic guide to Saturn in the June Sky & Telescope, page 48.

Uranus (magnitude 5.9, in Pisces) is low in the east just before dawn begins.

Neptune (magnitude 7.9, in Aquarius) is well up in the southeast just before dawn.

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All descriptions that relate to your horizon — 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) is Universal Time (UT, UTC, or GMT) minus 4 hours.

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“This adventure is made possible by generations of searchers strictly adhering to a simple set of rules. Test ideas by experiments and observations. Build on those ideas that pass the test. Reject the ones that fail. Follow the evidence wherever it leads, and question everything. Accept these terms, and the cosmos is yours.”— Neil deGrasse Tyson