SkyEye

The Calendar

Saturn's rings close to their minimum aspect for the year on the first of the month. Solstice arrives on Earth.

The Solar System

The word planet is derived from the Greek word for 'wanderer'. Unlike the background stars, planets seem to move around the sky, keeping mostly to a narrow track called the ecliptic, the path of the Sun across the stars. Dwarf planets and small solar-system bodies, including comets, are not so constrained, often moving far above or below the ecliptic.

Sun Taurus → Gemini

Mercury Taurus

Mercury is visible in the morning sky this month and is best seen from southern latitudes. Following last month's inferior conjunction, the tiny planet returns to direct motion on the third and reaches a greatest elongation west of 23.2° on 16 June. Like Mercury's first morning appearance, this is a poor apparition for observers in northern temperate regions.

Venus Aries → Taurus

Having already passed by four of the five superior planets this year, Venus completes the set by appearing 1.5° north of Uranus on 11 June. The morning star is declining in altitude as seen from southern latitudes but is still quite high in the sky at sunrise. This apparition is much poorer for planet watchers in northern temperate latitudes, with Venus remaining low in the east.

Earth and Moon

The Arietids, a daytime meteor shower, takes place early in the month whereas the June Boötids occur about twenty days later. Moonlight should not be a problem for the latter. Earth reaches solstice on 21 June. The word solstice means 'sun stands still' so that on this day, the solar declination reaches an extreme. In this case, the Sun appears directly over the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere. The waning crescent Moon occults two planets this month, Mars on 22 June and Uranus two days later. The Moon reaches its farthest apogee of the year on the penultimate day of the month.

Mars Pisces → Cetus → Pisces

Mars reaches perihelion on 21 June and the following day is occulted by the waning crescent Moon in an event visible only from parts of the Antarctic. Mars remains a morning-sky object, not rising until after midnight, and is best observed from the southern hemisphere where the nights are long and dark.

Jupiter Pisces → Cetus

Jupiter reaches west quadrature late in the month. This is an interesting time to observe the planet and its major satellites as the shadows cast are somewhat off to the side. Jupiter now rises before midnight for southern hemisphere astronomers but is still strictly a morning sky object for those in northern temperate latitudes.

Saturn Capricornus

The angle at which the rings are observed from Earth varies constantly throughout the year and on the first on the month, the rings close to their minimum viewing angle for 2022. Four days later, Saturn becomes stationary in right ascension and reverses course, changing from direct to retrograde motion. The gas giant is best viewed from the southern hemisphere where it rises high in the winter sky from mid- to early evening. For observers in northern temperate regions, the ringed planet is just now starting to rise before midnight.

Uranus Aries

Now visible in the morning sky before sunrise, Uranus is visited by the morning star on 11 June, the two objects lying some 34° away from the Sun. Uranus is then occulted by the waning crescent Moon on 24 June. Early risers in northwestern Australia and Indonesia have an opportunity to see this event which begins around 20:00 UT.

Neptune Pisces

A small telescope is necessary to view the most distant planet in the solar system. Neptune rises well before midnight for astronomers in the southern hemisphere but only just makes it into the evening sky by the end of the month for observers in northern temperate latitudes. It reaches west quadrature this month, as well as its maximum declination north. Retrograde motion (in right ascension) gets underway on 28 June.