Today:
Saturn continues to rise a few minutes earlier each night, breaking the eastern horizon at 2 o’clock tomorrow morning, though not alone. The Moon is just hours past its Last Quarter phase, still looking half-illuminated, just to the lower left of its far-more distant cousin Saturn, some 910 million miles, compared to the Moon’s one quarter of one million miles.
Friday:
Between the brightest star in the skies this evening, Arcturus, high in the south at 10:30 PM, and the second brightest, Vega, slightly lower in the east, the faint stars of Hercules offer a challenge to view. Many people look for the bowtie pattern, marking his knees to the upper left, and his shoulders to the lower right.
Saturday:
June starts with all the visible planets either in the Sun’s glare, or visible in the early mornings, the earliest of the year. Tomorrow morning, starting shortly after 3 o’clock, the thinning Crescent Moon joins the red planet Mars, the pair lifting higher for better views near 4 o’clock, then fading in the brightening blush of morning twilight.