Rather by default, our planet of the month this issue is Saturn. It’s not particularly well placed for observation, but it is slightly better placed than the other planets. It’s not particularly or unusually bright either, but it is easily visible to the naked eye. In mid-June, at the start of our observing period, Saturn is a slightly yellow-hued morning star, rising in the east around three hours before sunrise. But due to its position in Aquarius it won’t actually climb very high into the sky, as it moves southwards before the sky brightens with the approach of dawn, so if you have trees, buildings or hills on your horizon in that direction you might struggle to see it.
By 1 July Saturn will be rising at around half past midnight, or more than four hours before the Sun. By then it will be best seen around 02:30, when it is above the southeastern horizon while the sky is still reasonably dark. You’ll find it to the lower right of the well-known asterism ‘the Circlet’ – a small, roughly circular pattern of stars in Pisces.