Special to CosmicTribune.com, June 29, 2023

FRIDAY, JUNE 30

■ The Moon shines among the stars of upper Scorpius. The brightest of these is orange Antares about 2° or 3° to the Moon’s lower left (for North America). Next brightest is Delta Scorpii, farther to the Moon’s upper right. Binoculars help through the moonlight and summer haze.

■ Mars and Venus are now at their minimum separation for this apparition, 3.6° apart, as shown below. Mars will remain in low twilight view for more than a month to come. Venus will drop away faster.

SUNDAY, JULY 2

■ Full Moon tonight (exactly full at 7:39 a.m. Monday morning EDT).

MONDAY, JULY 3

■ The two brightest stars of summer are Vega, very high now in the east at dusk, and Arcturus, very high in the southwest. Vega is white with just a touch of icy blue. Arcturus is a yellow-orange giant.

WEDNESDAY JULY 5

■ We now get a brief window of moonless dark between the end of twilight and moonrise roughly a half hour later (depending on your location). Use it to see how well you can trace out the huge arch of the Milky Way looming up across the eastern half of the sky.

THURSDAY, JULY 6

■ The waning Moon rises just a few degrees below Saturn late tonight. They’re high in the south as dawn begins in the sky of Friday morning the 7th.