What's Up in the Night Sky

June 2026 - Vol. 30, No. 6

This Month's Night Sky - NOTE: The next paragraph describes the sky as it appears at 10 pm EST (11 pm EDT) near mid- month. The sky also looks this way at 11 pm EST (midnight EDT) during the beginning of the month and at 9 pm EST (10 pm EDT) by month's end.

Spica (Virgo) glows in the SW while Regulus (Leo) vanishes over the W horizon before midnight. The "big dipper" (Ursa Major's asterism) now stands on its "handle" in the North. Antares (Scorpius) is low on the S horizon. The Eastern sky is dominated by the "summer triangle" asterism: Deneb (Cygnus), Vega (Lyra) and Altair (Aquila). An interesting star tour begins at the last star of the big dipper's handle, Alkaid. Following the curve of the handle, "arc to Arcturus". Now, following the same curve, "spike to Spica" and "continue to Corvus", its distinctive four star, kite-shaped, asterism.

MERCURY starts out the month in Gemini, joining the outer planets Jupiter and Saturn in the evening sky. VENUS in Gemini will buzz past Jupiter in the evening sky. MARS rises in the morning twilight for northern observers. JUPITER, will be 1.6 degrees away from Venus on June 9th. Now is the time to watch the dance of the planets on clear nights. SATURN, in the morning sky, is located in Pisces. URANUS, rises in morning twilight. NEPTUNE, rises well after midnight.

Review how to determine Angular Measurement.

Calendar of Events

NOTE: For those observers not in the ET zone, convert the calendar times to your zone's time by subtracting one hour for CT, two for MT and three for PT. Don't forget to adjust for Daylight Savings Time when necessary by subtracting one hour from your planisphere's time. Dawn and dusk times must also be corrected. See your local newspaper, TV news, or the internet for sunrise and sunset times. Find the current information at the U.S. Naval observatory. Unfortunately some of these events may occur during daylight hours in your area.

DATE	EVENT
01	Moon at apogee.
02	Mercury 1.3 deg. N. of M-35.
05	Venus at greatest heliocentric lat. N.
09	Venus 1.6 deg. N. of Jupiter.
13	Moon in the Pleiades star cluster (M-45).
14	Moon at perigee, expect large tides.
15	Mercury at greatest elongation E. (25 deg.)
16	Mercury 3 deg. S. of Moon.
17	Jupiter 3.0 deg. S. of Moon. Venus .3 deg. S. of Moon, occultation from Hawaii, continental USA, S. half of Canada, Caribbean, NW South America, westernmost W. Africa.
18	Moon 0.6 deg. N. of the Beehive (M-44).
19	Alpha Leonis, Regulus, 0.3 deg. N. of Moon, occultation from NE South America, parts of Africa, Kerguelen Is. Venus 0.4 deg N. of the Beehive star cluster (M-44).
21	Solstice, Summer in the North, Winter in the South.
27	Alpha Scorpii, Antares, 0.4 deg. N. of Moon, occultation from eastern South Africa, Kerguelen Is., part of Antarctica, SE Australia, and New Zealand.
28	Moon at apogee.
29	This month's full Moon is often called the "Strawberry Moon" as it is the time that strawberries ripen in North America. Mercury stationary.

Lunar Almanac for June 2026

Phases of the Moon	Phase and Date(s)	Best viewed before local midnight
	New 15	Deep Space Objects
	1st. Qtr 21	Planets & Moon
	Full 29	Moon
	Last Qtr 08	Deep Space & Planets

Topic of the month: Canes Venatici: Dogs of the Northern Sky

The northern sky is a dark place, far from the bright star clouds of the Milky Way. Here be dragons, bears, and hunters. The northern hunters also brought their hunting dogs, in the form of a little constellation known as Canes Venatici. This constellation was introduced by Johannes Hevelius in 1690. Visually, the constellation appears to the naked eye as two stars beneath the the handle of the "Big Dipper", the brighter of the two is known as Cor Coroli, or heart of the king. It is a 2.9 magnitude star accompanied by a 5.5 magnitude companion located about 150 light years away. This double star is very easy to detect in a small telescope. The fainter star is called Chara, a yellow 4.3 magnitude star.

finder chart for Canes Venatici

Canes Venatici is near the north galactic pole of the Milky Way. Because of its position, it is the home of many external galaxies, the brightest Messier galaxies can be located by using the finder chart. The most famous galaxy in this part of the sky is known as M51,also known as the Whirlpool galaxy, actually a pair of interacting galaxies (NGC 5194 and 5195) that are best observed in a larger telescope, 10 inches or better. Its spiral structure was first observed by Lord Rosse using a 72-in telescope in 1845. At mag 8.4 it is bright enough to be seen by smaller instruments, even binoculars, but it will appear as a fuzzy patch.

The galaxy M63, near an 8th mag star is tilted about 30 deg from face on, is sometimes called the "Sunflower" nebula. Another bright galaxy in Canes Venatici is M94, another face on spiral. this galaxy has a large central bulge and is tightly wound and will appear as a round object at a dark site. The last Messier galaxy on this chart, M106 is also a Seyfert galaxy, that emits x-rays.

Another feature of Canes Venatici is the globular star cluster M3, that is not seen in the chart above that was generated by Stellarium, a free open source planetarium program. The above image was created by Dawn Jenkins, using Stellarium and a graphic editing program. The globular M3 is found on a line between Cor Coroli and Arcturus.

The dark galactic pole must share the night with the star clouds of the northern Milky Way, that rise into the night sky just before midnight at the beginning of the month.. The bright presence of those clouds of galactic stars and dust will make it hard to find the dark galaxies of Spring as we move into Summer.

--See You Under the Stars!
Astra for Astra's Almanac