Today:
June finds the Milky Way just beginning to return to the skies in the east, surrounded by the three bright stars of the Summer Triangle. The Milky Way will climb a little higher each evening,, allowing the skies to feature increasingly better views of the faint wisps of star clouds that form our view of the Milky Way. It remains visible in the evening skies through the winter.
Thursday:
Looking to the southwest at 9:30, you can pan toward the west and see that Regulus has drawn noticeably closer to Mars. If you then pan toward the south, you can see that Moon has drawn close to the bright and blue star Spica, the Moon appearing to its right. Unlike what will be a more prolonged proximity between Mars and Regulus, the Moon will already have shifted noticeably to the left/south of Spica by tomorrow night.
Friday:
Night owls can see a pale yellow point of light rising in the east-southeast at 2 o’clock, better seen after 3 AM, our distant planetary cousin, Saturn. Much closer, and much brighter as well as more intense in its yellow hue, Venus will rise about an hour later, well placed for viewing in the east-northeast from 3:45 to 4:45. Venus’ yellow will be no match for that of the rising sun, roughly an hour later.