Catch a Planetary Trio Late Evenings in Early June: A planetary feast is served up during the short nights of summer this year. Early June sees Venus and Jupiter combine as an irresistible visual spectacle low over the north-west horizon. They are closest together on the nights of 6 – 12 June. Joining the dazzling duo is the elusive planet Mercury, located a little way to the lower right. Mercury is much dimmer than Venus and Jupiter, but still visible to the naked eye – and certainly visible in binoculars as a pink-white ‘star’. Best dates to look for Mercury are 6 – 15 June. Late evening on 16 June sees a thin crescent moon sit atop Mercury. On 17 June a crescent moon sits directly underneath Venus for an awe-inspiring evening finale!
Watch Saturn Return to the Morning Sky: Planet hunting then continues in the morning sky ahead of sunrise with the return of the ringed planet Saturn. Find it low in the east as a yellow-white ‘star’ beneath the square of Pegasus from about 2:30am in mid-June. On 8 July it sits to the lower right of the moon, and by the end of July it rises much earlier at just after midnight. A telescope of 90mm aperture is big enough to show Saturn’s rings.
Have Binoculars? Spot a Comet! : Towards the end of July and into early August there’s a good chance that we’ll have a comet slowly moving across the pre-dawn sky. Comet 10P/Tempel 2 might not be bright enough to see with the naked eye but it should be visible in binoculars. Best time to look are on the mornings of 25 July and 26 July at about 2:30am – 3am. Look directly south about 15-degrees above a flat horizon to find it as a smudgy glow.
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