Planets, Moon And Tips On Spotting Objects: June 2024 Skywatching
See Saturn and Mars dance with the moon this month. Jupiter is visible in the morning. Also, get tips on viewing satellites, planets and more.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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TechTranscript
00:00What's up for June?
00:05Saturn and Mars meet up with the Moon.
00:08Jupiter returns at dawn.
00:10And tips for identifying some common objects seen in the sky.
00:14On June 2nd, in the hour before sunrise, reddish Mars hangs beneath the crescent Moon.
00:20Find the pair low in the east with Saturn lurking nearby.
00:24The following morning, on June 3rd, the Moon has moved so that it sits beneath Mars.
00:29During the last week of June, giant Jupiter re-emerges as a morning planet,
00:34after passing behind the Sun from our point of view on Earth over the past couple of months.
00:39By June 24th, you can find it about 10 degrees above the horizon as the morning sky begins to brighten.
00:45It climbs a little higher each morning after that, as July approaches.
00:49Then on June 27th, look for the Moon with Saturn.
00:52The pair rise around midnight, and by dawn you'll find them high in the southern sky.
00:57They appear super close together this morning,
01:00close enough to appear in the same field of view through binoculars.
01:04When you spot bright or moving objects in the night sky,
01:08it might not be immediately clear what you're looking at.
01:11Is that a planet, or just a bright star?
01:14Is it a satellite, or maybe just an airplane?
01:17Here are a few quick tips on how to tell the difference.
01:20First, there are five planets that are easily observed with the unaided eye.
01:25Of these, two planets, Venus and Jupiter, can sometimes appear incredibly bright,
01:31like shining beacons in the sky.
01:34The other planets are much less bright, but still generally shine as brightly as bright stars.
01:39The big tip-off that you're looking at a star and not a planet
01:43is that planets tend to shine steadily, whereas stars twinkle.
01:47Stars are so far away that they're just points of light,
01:51and the dimples in our atmosphere easily distort them, causing the familiar flicker.
01:55The planets are relatively close by, being here in our solar system.
01:59Through binoculars or a telescope, instead of a single point,
02:03planets show us a tiny disk or crescent that's illuminated by the sun.
02:08So even though they appear star-like to the eye,
02:11the light from a planet is coming from a slightly more spread-out area,
02:15making planets appear more constant in brightness.
02:18Both planets and stars rise in the east and set in the west,
02:22and they move very slowly across the sky during the night.
02:26But what if you see an object that's moving?
02:29Distant aircraft are usually pretty easy to identify
02:32because they follow a slow, steady path that's straight or gently curving.
02:37They have exterior lights that flash in a regular pattern, often including a red beacon.
02:42Satellites tend to be most visible in the hour or so after dark or before dawn,
02:47when it's night here on the surface,
02:49but the satellites are high enough in the sky to be illuminated by sunlight.
02:53They're generally fainter than aircraft and move in slow, very steady, very straight paths.
02:59They might briefly flare in brightness, but they don't have lights that blink.
03:04The International Space Station is an exception because it's very bright
03:08and is often visible for long enough to observe the curving path of its orbit.
03:12But it doesn't have flashing lights you can see from the ground,
03:15and it does something else satellites do.
03:17Satellites often fade out of view as they travel into Earth's shadow
03:22or fade into view as they emerge.
03:24And occasionally, you might see a train of satellites moving slowly and silently in formation.
03:31One other sight that's sometimes confusing is rocket launches
03:34that happen soon after sunset or before sunrise.
03:38Similar to spotting satellites, this is when it's darker here on the ground,
03:42but launching rockets climb high enough to be illuminated by sunlight.
03:46When rockets launching at these times of day get really high in altitude,
03:50their exhaust can be brilliantly illuminated.
03:53And sometimes you might even see spiral or circular shapes that slowly grow and then dissipate
03:59as a spent rocket stage empties its propellant into space.
04:03With so much to see in the night sky,
04:05it's helpful to be familiar with some of these common sights
04:08so that you can get on with your sky-watching
04:10and investigate whatever mysteries and wonders you're in search of.
04:15Here are the phases of the Moon for June.
04:19Stay up to date on NASA's missions exploring the solar system and beyond at science.nasa.gov.
04:26I'm Preston Dyches from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
04:29and that's What's Up for this month.
04:31NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology