On Monday and Tuesday, June 8 and 9, there will be a conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter. They will be the two brightest objects in the night sky.
In astronomy, a conjunction is an event where two celestials bodies appear to be close to each other in the night sky. This is an optical illusion because the objects are actually millions of miles apart in space.
Nearby and to the right of this conjunction will be the planet Mercury as well as the twin bright stars of Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini.
Keep an eye on the planet Mercury as it rises higher and higher each night until it reaches its highest point in the sky on June 15. Then again watch each night as it drops below the horizon. Mercury is one of four terrestrial planets, which means it is a rocky body like Earth. It is the smallest planet in the Solar System, and takes only 88 days to go around the Sun.
Speaking of the number 88 – there are 88 visible constellations, there are 88 keys on a piano, and in the Back to the Future films, 88 miles per hour is the speed that Doctor Emmett Brown’s DeLorean car had to reach in order to attain time travel!
June 18 will bring another conjunction. The Moon and Jupiter will appear in the west. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet in our solar system. Jupiter is so big that all the other planets in the solar system could fit inside it. Also, more than 1,300 Earths would fit inside Jupiter! With a pair of binoculars, you can easily spot Jupiter’s four largest Galilean moons – it has 115 moons at last count. With a small backyard telescope, you can observe the planet’s colorful atmospheric bands and, on a clear night, the Great Red Spot.
On June 21, the Summer Solstice will occur. This day will have the longest daylight of the year. Los Angeles will have 14 hours and 25 minutes of daylight and Fairbanks, Alaska will have 21 hours and 49 minutes with the sun setting at almost midnight!
June 29 brings us the first full moon of summer. This full moon is known as “The Strawberry Moon.” The name dates back to Native American Algonquin tribes who used the lunar cycle to track the seasons. It corresponds with the peak season for harvesting wild strawberries.
June is a special month to see the rare noctilucent clouds. Noctilucent clouds are high-altitude clouds that can be seen under specific conditions. These special clouds are composed of microscopic water ice crystals suspended in the mesosphere 50 miles above the Earth. They appear during the summer months, after sunset, as thin wispy blue and silver streaks dancing across the sky.
If you are planning to go to the Grand Canyon in June, there will be a full one-week “Star Party” from June 6 until the 13. The National Park Service will be the host at the south rim and it is free.
When not stargazing, Neill Simmons, is an Investment Executive with LPL Financial in Woodland Hills. If you have any astronomy or financial questions, he may be reached at (818) 936-2626 or emailed at neill.simmons@lpl.com.
