A FIVE PLANET PARADE:

Through this early part of June the five visible planets will be observable.

VENUS:

Even though Venus reaches its greatest elongation (distance from the sun) this Saturday the planet is already rising less and less in the evening sky each night. The planet is presently located at the crossover from Gemini to Cancer and shines with a bright magnitude 0f -4.4. Venus is the second brightest object in the night sky after the Moon. The planet is presently at a waning half phase and as it enters its waning crescent phase in early July the apparent size of the disc will double from is apparent size as of May 1st. As the crescent of Venus gets thinner and thinner by late July, early August, it will have grown from an apparent size of 16 arc seconds on May 1st to 50 arc seconds.

The end of this month will see a brilliant conjunction on the evening of June 30th when Venus and Saturn pass within 2/3rds of a degree of each other. This will be the closest planetary conjunction of the year and will be best viewed due west between 10pm and 11pm that evening. The two planets will be close enough to be both visible in the eyepiece of a moderate power telescope.

MERCURY:

Though it is presently sinking towards the horizon Mercury is still visible in the western twilight until mid-June. it passed its greatest elongation on June 1st when it shone with a magnitude of +0.4. It now is about +1.2 in magnitude. From 10pm to 11pm for the next few days Mercury can be seen very low in the northwestern sky, to the right and below Venus.

SATURN

As said above Saturn will pass in conjunction with Venus on the evening of June 30th. Saturn is in the constellations Leo , to the east of the position of Venus. Saturn is presently setting before midnight, and it will set earlier and earlier as the month goes on. even though the rings present a good view because of a 17 degree tilt the features of the planet will be less and less visible as the month goes on because the closeness of the horizon will blur the detail. Presently Saturn shines at magnitude +0.5.

JUPITER:

The planet Jupiter is now much brighter than Saturn at magnitude -2.6. This planet reached opposition on June 5th when it began to rise just as the sun set. You will find it in the southeastern to southern sky throughout the nights in the constellation Ophiuchus. This constellation lays on and just above the ecliptic between the constellations of Libra to the west and Sagittarius to the east. Jupiter is usually the second brightest planet after Venus. Its distance from Earth is compensated by the fact that its surface area is 130 times that of Venus. Jupiter will never rise too high in the sky this month(20 degrees elevation at max, and that makes telescopic viewing difficult. Early next Saturday morning here in western North America two of Jupiter's Galilean moons will cast their shadows on the planet's face at the same time. Depending on location this will occur anywhere from 2:17 to 3:03 am this Saturday. This will be a good time for telescopic observation of this planet.

MARS:

This month the planet Mars can be observed at +0.8 magnitude in the constellation Pisces. This means that it lays low in the east in the hours just before sunrise. Mars is presently just to the east of the waning crescent Moon in the hours before dawn, but by June 11th it will have passed to the west, rising earlier and higher throughout the summer.