Special to CosmicTribune.com, June 9, 2025

Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report.

SUNDAY, JUNE 8

■ The nearly full Moon (it’ll be full on Tuesday night the 10th) shines well to the upper right of Antares this evening, as shown below.

MONDAY, JUNE 9

■ Bright Arcturus, magnitude 0, shines pale yellow-orange very high overhead toward the south these evenings. The kite shape of Boötes, its constellation, now extends upward from Arcturus. The kite is narrow, slightly bent, and 23° long: about two fists at arm’s length.

■ And on the opposite side of the celestial pole… To most of us, “Cassiopeia” means “Cold!” Late fall and winter are when it stands high overhead (for mid-northern latitudes). But even on warm June evenings, Cassiopeia still lurks low. As twilight fades out, look for it down near the north horizon: a wide, upright W. The farther north you are the higher it’ll appear, but even as far south as San Diego and Atlanta, all of its stars will be above the horizon.

TUESDAY, JUNE 10

■ Full Moon (exactly full at 3:44 a.m. Wednesday morning EDT). The Moon, in southernmost Ophiuchus, rises around sunset almost due southeast (depending on your latitude). By the time nightfall is complete, the Moon has moved over to the south-southeast but is still rather low. Look for orange Antares shining almost a fist to its upper right, and for the stars of the head of Scorpius a little farther upper right.

The full Moon of June is traditionally called the honey moon. Maybe this was because it is often yellow, even deep yellow or orange. There are two reasons for this. First, summer air is often humid, humid means hazy, and haze reddens the Sun, Moon, and stars, especially when they’re seen through the thick air low above the horizon.

Second, a full Moon in most of June rides its lowest across the sky through the night. The full Moon is of course opposite the Sun, and around the June solstice the Sun passes highest across the sky through the day.

The opposite effect happens in December — when the Sun crosses the sky lowest, the full Moon crosses the sky highest. Moreover, cold December air is usually drier.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11

■ Even now as summer nears, look very low in the north-northwest during late twilight for wintry Capella very out of season. The farther north you are, the less low Capella will appear. For the South it’s just gone. But if you’re as far north as Montreal or either of the Portlands (Oregon or Maine), Capella is actually circumpolar.

THURSDAY, JUNE 12

■ Have you ever seen Alpha Centauri? At declination –61° our brilliant, magnitude-zero neighbor is permanently out of sight if you’re north of latitude 29°. But if you’re at the latitude of San Antonio, Orlando, or points south, Alpha Cen skims just above your true southern horizon for a little while late these evenings.

When to look? When Alpha Librae, the lower-right of Libra’s two brightest stars, is due south over your landscape. That’s about 9:30 or 10 p.m. now (depending on where you live east-west in your time zone). Drop your gaze 45° straight down from Alpha Lib.

FRIDAY, JUNE 13

■ Bright Arcturus, very high toward the south these evenings, and Spica, about three fists at arm’s length below it, form an almost perfectly equilateral triangle with dimmer Denebola, Leo’s 2nd-magnitude tail tip, off to their right. All three sides of the triangle are close to 35° long (35.3°, 35.1°, and 32.8°). Sky & Telescope columnist George Lovi named this the Spring Triangle (in the March 1974 issue), to go with those of summer and winter. For such a near-perfect equilateral, I say the name ought to be revived.

Mercury is getting a little higher in bright twilight after sunset (bring binoculars), but Jupiter has sunk hopelessly low.

SATURDAY, JUNE 14

■ As we count down the last seven days to official summer (the solstice comes on the night of June 21-22), the Summer Triangle stands high and proud in the east after dark. Its top star is bright Vega. Deneb is the brightest star to Vega’s lower left, by 2 or 3 fists at arm’s length. Look for Altair farther to Vega’s lower right. Altair looks midway in brightness between Vega and Deneb.

If you have a dark enough sky, the Milky Way runs across the bottom of the Summer Triangle from side to side.

SUNDAY, JUNE 15

■ Titan casts its shadow on Saturn tonight! Only every 15 years does Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, cross Saturn’s face from Earth’s viewpoint — and, more visibly, cast its tiny black shadow onto Saturn’ globe. A new series of these events is under way. They will continue every 16 days until October.

Tonight Titan’s shadow crosses Saturn’s disk from 8:21 UT to 14:00 UT June 16th. That’s from 3:21 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. June 16th Central Daylight Time, or 1:21 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time June 16. Because Saturn is only up in view before and during dawn, this means western North America is again favored. See Bob King’s Titan Shadow Transit Season Underway.

  June 8-15: Full ‘honey moon’ low in the sky, The Sky