A week into June and before you realise, half the year is over. However, the skies up there have a lot of interesting activities in line for you.
The summer solstice will take place on June 21. Besides being an official announcement of the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere, it will also be the longest day of the year. On this day, the sun will reach its northernmost point. The North Pole of the earth will be tilted toward the sun and will be directly over the Tropic of Cancer at 23.44 north. This is the first day of summer (summer solstice) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of winter (winter solstice) in the Southern Hemisphere.
Watch out for the Summer Triangle which rises around 15 minutes past midnight. This huge isosceles triangle is composed of three of the brightest stars in the sky, and each of them in turn is the brightest star in its own constellation. The brightest is the bluish-white star Vega, in Lyra the Lyre, followed by the yellow-white Altair in Aquila, the Eagle and finally there is the white Deneb, in Cygnus, the Swan. The stars appear in that order, as the twilight sky grows dark.
Do not miss
June 13 is new moon. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere. This month also offers an opportunity to view noctilucent clouds. It means night shining in Latin and the clouds are made up of ice crystals that are only visible in a deep twilight.
While Mercury will remain far away from the Sun, Venus will continue to dominate the western evening sky after sunset. Mars which is now in the constellation Capricorn will start moving westward by the end of the month. The Red planet is now moving very close to Earth and will reach the closest point in about 60 days time. Jupiter will be visible early to late evening for most of the month. The ringed planet will also be closest to Earth on June 27 and will be visible all night long. This is the best time to view and photograph Saturn and its moons. A medium-sized or larger telescope will allow you to see Saturn’s rings and a few of its brightest moons.
Under dark skies look out for Messier13, located in the constellation Hercules one of the brightest globular cluster. This cluster is visible to the naked eye, but if you are using binoculars then look out for what appears as a fuzzy ball of light that’s slightly bigger than full Moon. It is said that its brightness is because it contains around 300,000 stars.
Also watch out for the strawberry moon. The June full moon coincides with the strawberry picking season in North America and is therefore called the strawberry moon. It's often called the Full Rose Moon in Europe.
