Our skyward-watching volunteer, Bob, has sent us some notes of what-to-look-for this month ....
June’s summer sky.
June is when the longest day, hence shortest night, occurs and this year the summer solstice is on June 21st.
The unfortunate thing, is that to view the night sky you need to be a bit of a night owl, as the skies are not dark until after 10pm and are getting light at 3.30am onwards.
However, you can be rewarded on the 23rd, with a clear sky, when there will be an unusually large Full Moon due to the moon being at its closest to the Earth
and also close to the horizon making it nearly 30% bigger and brighter than normal.
This is a good time of the year to view The Sun, Earth’s very own Star.
However, care needs to be taken when trying to view the Sun.
It should never be looked at directly either with your eyes or through any optical equipment without the proper filters.
Solar eclipse glasses can be bought but be careful with these, any scratches on them makes them unusable.
The best way to view The Sun is to project its image through binoculars or a telescope onto a sheet of white paper/ card.
Saturn is still visible in the SW skies through June setting around 2.30am.
A challenge this month using your Planisphere is to try and find the 3 bright summer triangle stars of Deneb, Altair andVega - the summer triangle.
More about these 3 stars and their constellations next month.
If you are thinking about useful guides, binoculars or telescopes, then this page may be useful ....> Jodrell Bank
Want a free skymap to print out ..... here you can download the June evening sky map