![]() (Image credit: Chris Vaughan/Starry Night) MarsĪn illustration of Mars in the June night sky. These are signs that Venus is swinging toward us in its orbit, on its way to passing between the Earth and sun in August. In a telescope the planet is now rapidly waning in phase while growing in size. Venus will be positioned 3 degrees to the lower left of the moon. Then, on the first evening of summer, June 21, about an hour after sunset, look low toward the west to see a striking configuration involving a waxing crescent moon, Venus, and a much fainter Mars. Look for M44 lower left of Venus on June 13, and below it on June 14. On June 13 and 14, Venus will be passing within less than 1-degree of the middle of M44, the famous Beehive Star Cluster (use binoculars or a wide-field telescope). Venus spends the month brightening from -4.4 to -4.6, just short of the peak brilliance it will reach in early July. ![]() Skywatchers at 40 degrees north latitude see it 25 degrees high an hour after sunset on June 1, but by June 30 it's only 15 degrees high an hour after sunset and sets less than a half hour after twilight's end. How soon before then will your telescope seem to show it exactly half-lit? Venus is beginning to decline in twilight. ![]() It reaches greatest elongation (45 degrees east of the sun) on June 4. Venus dominates the western sky after sunset for yet another month and forms a compact, almost horizontal line with the "Twin Stars," Pollux and Castor to its right. An illustration of Venus as it appears in the June night sky. ![]()
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