With the summer solstice behind us, the nights begin to lengthen again. This week, the moon is brightening every week as it waxes towards June’s full Strawberry Moon, which will dominate the sky as it rises close to sunset on Monday, June 29. While moonlight washes out fainter stars, the brighter architecture of the summer sky is now firmly in place, revealing itself earlier each evening. Here’s everything you need to know about the night sky from Monday, June 22, through Sunday, June 28.
This is red Mars passing below the blue Pleiades star cluster (aka M45 and the Seven Sisters) on the evening of March 3, 2021. (Photo by: Alan Dyer/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Tuesday, June 23A 71%-lit waxing gibbous moon passes just two degrees from bright star Spica in the constellation Virgo.
Wednesday, June 24This is your last chance to see three planets in the post-sunset night sky, with tiny Mercury now low — and about to disappear — in the west beneath Jupiter and Venus. All three worlds are now sinking, so find a clear sightline to the horizon.
Friday, June 26-Saturday, June 27Here come two evenings when the moon will appear on either side of Antares, a red supergiant star — often confused with Mars — and the most famous in the constellation Scorpius.
Sunday, June 28Mars will appear 4.3 degrees from the famous Pleiades open cluster (also known as the Seven Sisters and M45).
Watch Mars close to the Pleiades open cluster before sunrise this week.
Stellarium
Rise an hour before sunrise where you are any day this week and look east for the sight of Mars to the right of the Pleiades open cluster. According to WhenTheCurvesLineUp.com, it won’t happen again until 2034. In the days to come, Mars will appear to move beneath the Pleiades, reaching its closest point on Sunday, June 28.
On Saturday, June 27, the potentially hazardous asteroid (152637) 1997 NC1 will make a close but completely safe flyby of Earth, passing about 2.6 million kilometers away — roughly 6.7 times the average distance to the moon. Estimated at 710-1,600 meters wide, it’s the kind of large asteroid that comes this close only about once a decade. The Virtual Telescope Project will show it live online on Friday, June 26 and Saturday, June 27.
Even under bright moonlight, the stars of summer in the Northern Hemisphere are now obvious. Bright Vega now climbs higher in the east each evening, soon to be joined by Deneb and Altair. These stars — the Summer Triangle — will form the backbone of the summer sky until October.
Scorpius, the Scorpion, with the bright yellow star Antares, and the blue stars Graffias and Dschubba which mark the head of the Scorpion. (Photo by: Alan Dyer/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Low in the southern sky, Scorpius brings a rich, dense region of the night sky into view. Its bright red star Antares, is unmistakable (the moon will guide you to it this week, see above), marking the heart of the scorpion. From northern latitudes, it never climbs particularly high, but that’s part of its appeal. You’re looking toward the direction of the Milky Way’s core—one of the most star-filled regions of the sky.
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