The Night Sky in June 2024
Sirius, the brightest star, appears in the west as the sky darkens. It sets in the southwest around 9 pm, mid-month, twinkling like a diamond. Canopus, the second brightest star, is in the southwest. Canopus is a 'circumpolar' star: it circles the South Celestial Pole (SCP on the chart) clockwise but never sets from Aotearoa NZ except for the most northern places. Around 1 a.m. it will be near the southern horizon, twinkling colourfully.
Arcturus is the brightest star in the north sky. Its orange light is often split into red and green when it is low in the sky. It sets in the northwest in the morning hours. Arcturus is relatively close at 37 light-years from the Sun. It appears bright because it is 170 times brighter than the Sun.
Crux, the Southern Cross, is south of the zenith. Beside it, and brighter, are Beta and Alpha Centauri, often called 'The Pointers' because they point at Crux. Alpha Centauri is the closest naked-eye star, 4.3 light years* away. Beta Centauri and three of the four brightest stars in Crux are hot, extremely bright blue-giant stars hundreds of light years away.
Orange Antares, high in the eastern sky, marks the body of Scorpius the scorpion. It is a red giant star: 600 light years away and 19 000 times brighter than the sun. The scorpion's tail, upside down, curves off to the right. Below Scorpius is Sagittarius, its brighter stars making 'the teapot'.
The Milky Way is brightest and broadest in the southeast toward Scorpius and Sagittarius. It remains bright but narrower through Crux and Carina then fades in the western sky. The Milky Way is our edgewise view of the galaxy, the pancake of billions of stars of which the sun is just one. The thick hub of the galaxy, 30 000 light years away, is in Sagittarius. A scan along the Milky Way with binoculars will find many clusters of stars and some glowing gas clouds. Relatively nearby dark clouds of dust and gas look like holes and slots in the Milky Way. The dust, more like smoke, mostly comes from red-giant stars like Antares. These clouds eventually coalesce into new stars.
The Clouds of Magellan, LMC and SMC, in the lower southern sky, are luminous patches easily seen by eye in a dark sky. They are two small galaxies about 160 000 and 200 000 light years away. They are much smaller than our galaxy but still contain billions of stars.
Bright planets are in the late night or morning sky (so not on the chart.) Saturn rises due east around 1 a.m. at the beginning of the month; around 11 p.m. at the end. It is a medium-bright ‘star’ similar to Fomalhaut that marks the Southern Fish, well above and right of Saturn. Saturn has a cream tint, Fomalhaut is white. At dawn Saturn is north of the zenith. On the morning of the 28th, Matariki Day, the Moon will be very close to Saturn. From places north of about Lake Taupo the Moon passes in front of Saturn between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m.
Mars rises around 4 a.m. mid-month. It is the same brightness as Saturn but orange red in colour. It is small in a telescope. The Moon will be near Mars on the mornings of June 3 and July 2.
Jupiter is the brightest ‘star’ in the dawn sky. It rises in the northeast around 6:30 a.m. mid-month. Left of it, and faint, is the Matariki/Pleiades star cluster. To the right of Jupiter is the orange star Aldebaran. Further right is Orion with ‘the pot’, Orion’s belt, at its centre. Above the line of three belt stars is bluish-white Rigel; below the line is orange Betelgeuse. Orion can also be seen setting in the evening twilight in June, ‘the pot’ tipped on its side. During the second half of June Jupiter moves down and to the right, away from Matariki and nearer the upside-down V of stars that includes Aldebaran.
*A light year (l.y.) is the distance that light travels in one year: nearly 10 million million km or 10^13 km. Sunlight takes eight minutes to get here; moonlight about one second. Sunlight reaches Neptune, the outermost major planet, in four hours. It takes sunlight four years to reach the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.
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