The Night Sky This Month – June 2025
(Looking for last month’s ‘Night Sky’? Find it at this link…)
A change of seasons arrives as stargazers in the southern hemisphere enjoy long nights to make up for cooling temperatures, while northerners enjoy summer at the expense of much shorter nights. Or for very northerly observers like me, no nights at all since astronomical darkness doesn’t arrive again until mid-July. But there are plenty of planetary conjunctions this month, with Mercury putting on a leisurely apparition in the western sky after sunset, Mars slowly easing itself westwards towards the Sun, and Venus and Saturn wandering about in the morning sky. The Milky Way wheels into view in the southeast earlier each night. And the Sun continues to hatch new sunspots and occasional (and unpredictable) coronal mass ejections that spur aurorae over much of the world. Here’s what to see in the night (and day) sky this month…
1 June 2025. Look for a fattening crescent Moon about 1.5o to 2o north of the bright star Regulus in the western sky as darkness falls.
1 June. Venus lies at its greatest western elongation 46o from the Sun. The planet continues in the morning sky, though it is now receding from Earth. As June begins, the appears half lit in a telescope but grows into a gibbous phase as the month progresses. Its apparent size decreases from 24” to 16” by month’s end.
3 June. First Quarter Moon, 03:41 UT
5 June. The Moon passes within half a degree of Spica, Virgo’s brightest star.
8 June. Mercury passes 2o north of Jupiter low over the western horizon this evening. To see the pair you need a clear view of the horizon – a pair of binoculars would also be a big help. This evening, the small planet shines at magnitude -1.2 while Jupiter shines at magnitude -1.9. Mercury extends it separation from the Sun for most of the month during this long apparition, though it grows dimmer throughout June. Jupiter becomes lost in the sun’s glare on its way to conjunction on the 24th.
11 June. Full Moon, 07:44 UT, the full Strawberry Moon.
16-17 June. Mars passes as close as 0.8o north of Regulus in the constellation Leo. Examine the two objects visually or with optics and compare the icy white color of Regulus to the ochre glow of Mars. Both planet and star shine with nearly the same brightness at magnitude +1.4.
18 June. Last Quarter Moon, 19:19 UT
19 June. Look eastward at dawn twilight to see the crescent Moon about 5o northeast of Neptune and 6o northeast of Saturn. You will need at least binoculars to see Neptune. The two planets lie within the same field of view of a low or medium power eyepiece in a telescope – a rare chance to see both planets at once. The two planets continue to grower closer for the next ten days and reach a separation of about one degree on June 29.
21 June. The Sun reaches its northernmost point on the ecliptic at 02:42 UT. This solstice marks the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern hemisphere, and the longest and shortest days of the year, respectively.
23 June. Look to the northeast just above the horizon before sunrise to see a thin crescent moon rising 5o northeast of the Pleiades.
24 June. Jupiter is in conjunction with the Sun. It reappears slowly in the morning sky in the coming days.
25 June. New Moon, 10:32 UT
Mercury, the thin crescent Moon, Castor and Pollux lined up in the northwest after sunset on June 27, 2025.
27 June. Look northwest after sunset to see a thin waning crescent Moon, Mercury, Castor, and Pollux in a nearly-straight line about 12o long. Given the bright summer twilight, a pair of binoculars is a big help for northern observers. Southern-hemisphere observers get a better view in darker sky.
29 June. Mars lies just over a degree northwest of the Moon, with Regulus hovering 7º further west.
30 June. Look again to the western sky as darkness falls. Tonight the crescent Moon lies as close as 0.2o from Mars.