Planets
THIS MONTH’S PLANETS
If you’re a planetary observer, you’re in for a treat from June through to July
Venus will be brighter in the sky and Saturn will be visible for longer, but Jupiter will be the most visually striking of all the worlds stretched out across the predawn sky this month. All through the month ahead, Jupiter will be a bright ‘morning star’, and even the light of the predawn sky won’t prevent it from being easily visible to the naked eye as a blue-white star, outshining the other worlds on either side of it.
In mid-June Jupiter will be rising two hours before the Sun, followed soon after into the sky by fainter, ruddier Mars. As the days pass and June slips into July, the two planets will appear to move apart, and as they do Jupiter will grow brighter and more obvious. By the end of our observing period in mid-July, Jupiter will be rising just after midnight, almost four hours before the Sun comes up, and will be a lovely sight low in the east.