The Night Sky This Month – June 2026
(Looking for last month’s ‘Night Sky’? Find it at this link…)
All five bright planets emerge in June, at least for part of the month, but brilliant Venus in particular puts on a spectacular show. It lies close to Jupiter in the western evening sky as the month begins, and the pair passes each other on the 9th during their annual conjunction. Mercury also makes a brief but prominent appearance in the evening sky below Jupiter and Venus. Saturn rises about 2:30 a.m. local time at mid-month – it’s always spectacular in a telescope. Mars rises slow and low in the east before sunrise and joins the Moon and Pleiades on the 13th. And North American observers with a pair of binoculars can see the Moon pass in front of Venus in the daylit sky on the 17th – a moderately spectacular event! Here’s what to see in the night (and day) sky this month.
8 June 2026. Last Quarter Moon, 10:01 UT
9 June. They’ve been getting closer for weeks, but tonight in the western sky after sunset you see brilliant Venus and Jupiter reach the culmination of their annual meetup. Separated by about 1.5o, the two appear over the west-northwestern horizon with the stars Castor and Pollux off to the north. Look also for Mercury about 13o west of Venus and closer to the horizon. It’s a lovely assembly of bright planets. Venus shines at magnitude -4.0, Jupiter at -1.8, and Mercury at +0.1. Ponder also the disparate distances of these three worlds. Tonight, Jupiter lies at a distance of 900 million km, Venus some 179 million km, and Mercury about 138 million km from Earth. Venus and Jupiter continue in the sky all month, while on June 10th Mercury reaches its maximum height above the horizon and heads back to conjunction with the Sun on June 24.
13 June. A wafer-thin Moon lies about 3o to the west of the Pleiades low over the east-northeastern horizon as dawn arrives in the early morning sky. Binoculars help you see this lovely conjunction in the morning twilight, especially the evident Earthshine on the darkened side of the Moon. Mars, still dim and distant, lies about 8o southwest of the Moon.
15 June. New Moon, 02:54 UT
17 June. Observers in much of North America can see Venus pass behind the slender crescent Moon during daylight hours. The occultation begins as Venus passes behind the Moon’s darkened limb, so the planet will seem to ‘disappear’ into the clear blue sky. It re-emerges later from the Moon’s slender crescent. In a telescope, the planet spans about 28” and its disk appears gibbous with a brightness of magnitude -4.0. Observers in most of North America, the Caribbean, and northeastern Brazil can see this impressive event, weather permitting. This website has detailed timing for hundreds of locations. A pair of binoculars will reveal the whole show, but before and after the occultation, try to see Venus without optical aid in the daytime sky.
17 June. Just past their occultation (see above), the Moon and Venus, now separating slowly, remain together about 2.5o apart in the evening sky after sunset in the west-northwest. Grab your binoculars to see the Moon in the same field of view as the Beehive star cluster (Messier 44). Jupiter and Mercury lie to the west. All in all, this makes for some spectacular viewing.
21 June. First Quarter Moon, 21:55 UT
21 June. The Sun reaches its northernmost point on the ecliptic at 08:25 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. The video above shows a time lapse of the night sky at summer solstice in Stockholm along with thin noctilucent clouds forming in the north.
24 June. One last bit of action in the western sky after sunset – Jupiter and Mercury are separated by a little less than 4o low over the horizon. Mercury has faded to magnitude +2.2 and presents a challenge for visual observers. Use binoculars and Jupiter itself to locate this little baked world.
29 June. Full Moon, 23:57 UT (The Full Strawberry Moon). Just past apogee, the most distant point in its orbit from Earth, this Strawberry Moon will appear about 7% smaller than average and 14% smaller than a ‘super moon’.