June’s new moon is lastly upon us, bringing with it a handful of valuable darkish nights by which to discover the wonders of the starry sky, earlier than the acquainted sight of the waxing lunar crescent returns to cover fainter targets from view.
This month’s new moon part happens at 10:54 p.m. EDT on June 14 (0254 GMT on June 15), when the lunar disk passes between the solar and Earth, leaving the nights surrounding it blissfully freed from moonlight.
The shortage of moonlight permits us to understand the myriad treasures of the post-sunset realm, together with faint constellations that are so easily overlooked in favor of their brighter counterparts during the rest of the month.
Visible planets
Look to the western horizon at sunset on June 14 to find the steady light of Venus shining a little over three degrees above Jupiter, just a few days on from their close conjunction on June 9.
Look to the lower right of Jupiter to spot Mercury shining above the horizon. The two will be separated by approximately 10 degrees — roughly the width of a clenched fist held at arm’s length against the night sky — to form a crooked planetary lineup in the night sky.
Mercury is putting on one of its best displays of the year. just one day out from reaching its point of greatest eastern elongation, when it appears farthest from the sun in the evening sky. Nonetheless, you’ll need a clear view of the western horizon if you hope to spot the elusive planet before it sets less than two hours after the sun.
Early risers will find the red light of Mars glistening less than 10 degrees above the eastern horizon in the predawn hours on nights surrounding the new moon phase, while Saturn will shine higher to the east, among the stars of the constellation Pisces.
Neptune can also be found hiding a little under 10 degrees to the upper right of the gas giant. It’s too dim to be spotted with the naked eye, but an 8-inch telescope should let you see its disk as a small blue dot from a dark sky location.
Stars and constellations
The new moon phase is the ideal time to head away from city lights to hunt the ancient sparkle of faint constellations that make themselves known in the absence of moonlight.
Turn to the southeast after sunset in mid-June and look out for the red light of the supergiant star Antares glowing between 10 and 20 degrees above the horizon. Antares sits at the heart of the constellation Scorpius, while the three bright stars to its upper right — Dschubba, Pi Scorpii and Acrab — represent the claws of the celestial predator.
Look above the stellar claws to find the kite-formation of stars that marks the constellation Libra, which represents a cosmic set of weighing scales. It’s the only constellation to be fashioned and named after an inanimate object and has long been associated with harmony and balance.
To Libra’s left is the constellation Ophiuchus, the “snake bearer“, which some consider to be the 13th zodiacal constellation, thanks to the fact that the sun passes through its southern extreme for two weeks each year, according to the astronomy website In-The-Sky.org.
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Ophiuchus was recorded within the 2nd century AD by the traditional Greek thinker and astronomer Ptolemy and is commonly depicted as a person holding an unlimited celestial snake. This snake is definitely a second constellation generally known as Serpens, which is split into two components that stretch on both aspect of Ophiuchus.
Darkish, moonless skies additionally reveal one among summer time’s best sights: the intense core of the Milky Approach, which may be seen as a powerful glowing arc extending upward from the southern horizon via the summer time triangle shaped from the intense stars Vega, Altair and Deneb round midnight in late spring and early summer time.
Need to seize your personal photographs of our galaxy glowing within the night time sky? Then you’ll want to take a look at our information detailing methods to {photograph} the Milky Approach, together with our roundups of the finest lenses and cameras for imaging the publish sundown realm.
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