Our Night Sky: June 2022

As June is the month of the Summer Solstice and the Longest Day, our night sky never quite gets dark and it’s not the greatest for spotting faint stars. However, there are 2-3 hours when you can spot the Summer Constellations that are up in the southern night sky just now and you can use the four bright stars, Arcturus, Antares, Vega and Spica to find your way around them. We also have the second-largest and second-brightest full moon of the year this month, making it a Strawberry Supermoon and, if you stay up to the early hours in the second half of the month, you’ll be able to enjoy a procession of planets rising in the east with all seven of the other planets in our solar system being visible to varying extents.

A full moon rising in the south-eastern sky, casting moonlight onto the surface of Loch Sunart at Resipole

The Constellations

​This month, the sun sets around 10:00 pm, so the stars and the constellations start won’t become visible until about 11:30 pm and with sunrise at about 4:30 am, it means that you only have about 2-3 hours to spot them. In fact, it never really gets dark, but it is possible to spot the Summer Constellations that are up in our southern sky just now. Unlike the few big and bright Winter Constellations, these Summer Constellations are more numerous, smaller and fainter, but you can use four bright stars that are easy to find to navigate your way around them. These stars are Arcturus, Antares, Vega and Spica.

Arcturus is probably the easiest of the four stars to find as it is the brightest star in the night sky just now. It is a red giant star that has a noticeable golden colour, and you will find it high up in the south-west along with the other stars that make up the constellation of Boötes (the Herdsman). If you look carefully, you should be able to pick out 5 other stars above Arcturus that join with it to make the shape of an ice-cream cone that represents the torso of the Herdsman.  A long way below Arcturus, low down on the western horizon, you will find Spica, the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo (the Maiden), which will have moved off to the west after filling the lower part of last month’s southern sky.
 
If you look really low down on the southern horizon, you will see Antares, another red giant star. It’s not as bright as Arcturus, but it does have more of a red glow and is named by some as the “Rival of Mars” because of this. It is the fifteenth brightest star in the night sky and the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius (the Scorpion). Antares marks the centre of the scorpion, with its claws extending towards the rather faint constellation of Libra, to its west. The scorpion has a curved tail, but most of this will be low in the sky or indeed, below the horizon.

The Constellation of Boötes
Image Credit: Till Credner [CC Share Alike 3]

​Above Scorpius, you will find Ophiuchus (the Serpent-Bearer). It is a large constellation, which straddles the celestial equator, and it is commonly depicted as a man grasping a snake. This snake is represented by the constellation of Serpens (the Serpent), which is immediately to the west of Ophiuchus. Above Serpens, you’ll find the semi-circular constellation of Corona Borealis (the Northern Crown), which is made up of 4 bright stars that represent the crown of Ariadne, daughter of King Minos in Greek mythology, who helped the hero Theseus kill the Minotaur and find his way out of the labyrinth in which the creature lived.

Southern Night Sky - June 2022
Created using SkyPortal Mobile App

Northern Night Sky - June 2022
Created using SkyPortal Mobile App

​High up in the south-eastern sky, you will find Vega, the brightest star in the constellation of Lyra (the Lyre) and the fifth brightest star in our night sky. Vega acts as the guide star to the Keystone, a rectangle of four stars in the constellation Hercules, the fifth largest constellations in our night sky. To find the Keystone, trace a straight line from Vega and towards Arcturus. You will find it about one third of the way along this line. The Keystone represents the body of Hercules and is home to M13, the Great Global Cluster, a bee-like swarm of a third of a million red giant stars. It is one of the brightest globular clusters and although it is visible to the naked eye, it will be easier to see when using binoculars or a small telescope.

​The Moon

We start the month with little or no Moon as the new Moon was on 30 May. On 2 June, looking through binoculars towards the western horizon at nightfall will reveal a narrow crescent moon with the twin stars Castor and Pollux in the constellation of Gemini just above it. You will also see a narrow crescent moon on the following night of 3 June, but it will be slightly wider and will be to the left of these two stars. 

​The first quarter Moon (a half moon) is on 7 June and you will find it over in the south-western sky as darkness falls, while a few days later on 9 June and 10 June you will find it close to Spica, the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo.
 
This month’s full Moon is on 14 June, becoming 100% full at 12:52 pm. This means that it will appear full on the nights of 13-14 June and 14-15 June. It will rise in the south-east at about 10:00 pm on 13 June and at about 11:30 pm on 14 June.  In Colonial America, this full Moon was referred to as the Strawberry Moon because this was when these the red strawberries ripen there. Europeans have dubbed it the rose moon, while other cultures named it the hot moon because it occurred at the beginning of the summer heat.
 
This month’s full Moon will be the second of 4 supermoons this year, making it at Strawberry Supermoon. As it will be 222,238 miles from Earth, its second closest approach of the year, it will appear as second-largest and second-brightest full moon of the year. However, the best supermoon will be on 13 July, when it will be closer to the Earth at some 222,089 miles away.
 
The last quarter Moon is on 21 June, the day of the Summer Solstice, when it will rise close to Jupiter in the eastern morning sky. On the following morning of 22 June, it will rise between Mars and Jupiter and on 23 June, it will rise beneath Mars. Three days later, on 26 June, it will be a crescent moon and it will rise slightly above and to the right of Venus, out a little bit further to the north-east.
 
There is new Moon (no moon) on 29 June.

​The Planets

There are no planets in the evening sky this month, so if you do want to see some you will need to stay up late or get up early to watch them as they rise over in the east.
 
Saturn is the first to appear, rising in the south-east at about 1:00 am to traverse the night sky in the constellation of Capricornus. Next to rise is a very faint Neptune, clearing the eastern horizon at around 1:30 am between Aquarius and Pisces, to then be followed about half an hour later by the mighty gas giant, Jupiter which will be shining brightly in the near dark sky.
 
After another half an hour, at 2:30 am, you will see a less bright Mars rise a little below and to the left of Jupiter, followed by a magnificently bright Venus, rising at 3:30 am further round towards the north-east. If you use a telescope, you may be able to pick out a very faint Uranus, close to Venus, however, as it will be almost 10,000 times fainter, it will be very difficult to see.
 
Finally, you will find Mercury to the lower left of Venus during the last week of the month because it clears the horizon at around 4:00 am. This is when the innermost planet will be most easily visible this month but because it rises so close to sunrise, it may be lost in the dawn twilight.

​Meteor Showers 

June is a quiet month meteor showers because most of them occur when it is daylight. In reality, we need to wait until the Perseid Meteor Shower in August for our next good show. Radiating from the constellation of Perseus, it will peak on the night of 12-13 August. Unfortunately for this year though, a full Moon occurs on 12 August, so all but the brightest meteors will be drowned out by strong moonlight at the peak. So, if you do want to look for the Perseids, then it would be best to take advantage of the moon free mornings in late July and early August.

​Summer Solstice

​This year, the summer solstice occurs on 21 June at 09:13 GMT (10:13 BST) and is the exact moment when the North Pole is at its maximum tilt towards the Sun. However, many people refer to it as the “Longest Day” because it is the day when the number of hours of daylight are at their maximum and the number of hours of night are at their minimum. This is because it is the day when the Sun rises at its closest to north-east, reaches its highest position in the sky at noon and then sets at its closest to north-west. For instance, on 21 June this year, our sunrise here on the Peninsula will be at 4:27:36 am and our sunset will be at 10:22:23 pm, giving us 17 hours, 54 minutes and 47 seconds of daylight. On June 20, our hours of daylight will be 3 seconds less and on June 22 they will be 5 seconds less.