Overview
- In early June, Venus and Jupiter will appear very close low in the northwest after sunset, creating an easy naked-eye sight that binoculars can enhance.
- Around the first half of the month, observers should look before dawn for Saturn near a thin crescent Moon and for a diagonal lineup of Mars, the Moon and Saturn the following morning.
- The moon’s new phase in mid‑June will produce darker skies that improve views of the Milky Way’s central region for people who travel away from city lights.
- Late June brings the Bootid meteor shower, which is predicted to peak then but usually yields few meteors per hour and can vary widely from one year to the next; Mars will also pass close to the Pleiades star cluster in the same late‑June window.
- Most events are visible without a telescope, but weather, timing and light pollution will determine what you actually see, and the June full Moon—called the 'Strawberry Moon' for a North American harvest tradition—does not imply a color change.