Your Stargazing Calendar for June 2022
In June, the night sky will feature a line dance of at least five planets, all visible to the naked eye without the use of special equipment like binoculars or a telescope.
The Strawberry supermoon will look larger and brighter than usual.
Catch the tail end of the tau Herculids meteor shower in June.
Highlighted by what could easily be the most spectacular full moon of 2022, the June night sky will also include the potential of a new meteor shower and a rare lineup of as many as six different planets.
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This June stargazing guide may not be chock-full of astronomical events, but the three main happenings we’ve outlined below are truly sights you don’t want to miss.
☄️ Meteor Showers: Early June
The final days of what is now known as the tau Herculids meteor shower will linger beyond its peak of May 29-31 into the early days of June. German observers discovered the comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann (let’s just call it SW3) in 1930, NASA says, but the faintness of the comet meant it wasn’t observed again until the 1970s.
➡️ Check out our full 2022 stargazing calendar
By the mid-1990s, the comet was 600 times brighter than decades before, and now it’s even visible by the naked eye. Astronomers also discovered the comet had “shattered into several pieces,” and has continued fragmenting since. While likely producing faint meteor showers this year, the new tau Herculids could still make an appearance when hitting Earth’s atmosphere. Add in a new moon to diminish night light, and there’s a chance that if the tau Herculids ejects debris at high enough speeds, we could still see some meteors during the first couple of days in June.
🌕 Full Moon: June 14
Celebrate June with strawberries. And then enjoy the full Strawberry Moon on June 14 (it’s also known as a Rose Moon in Europe). It’s known as a supermoon because its orbital proximity to Earth makes it appear larger and brighter than normal, according to the Farmer’s Almanac.
The moon’s closest point to Earth in its orbit, perigee, will give us a supermoon in the early hours of June 14. The moon may appear as much as 10 percent larger than an average full moon due to the angle created by its relatively close proximity to Earth.
We get a full moon when the moon’s entire face is illuminated when it’s positioned on the opposite side of Earth from the sun. Typically, we get 12 full moons each year and they each have their own name based on the month.
🪐 Planetary Alignments: June 19-27
In a planetary waltz ongoing since March, expect to see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus all line up—from Earth’s perspective, of course—and become visible together by June 24, a rare feat that will provide a distinctly fresh view of the planets.
In March, Mars, Saturn, and Venus started to move close enough together to be seen at the same time. Jupiter joined in April. Mercury and the moon will add to the mix in June, along with Uranus, so expect to see plenty of majestic night views in late June, even without the aid of a telescope.
From June 19-27 the planets will work toward alignment that results in a row of lights across the southeastern horizon. Expect Mercury to dip the lowest in the east, and Saturn will show the highest. While Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn should all be visible with the naked eye, a telescope—potentially, binoculars could do the trick—should also let you see Uranus a touch higher than Venus. If you’re super fortunate with a quality telescope, you may be able to catch a glimpse of Neptune, too.
Planetary alignments don’t come along every year, sometimes waiting as much as a decade before alignment. Often, it isn’t possible to see more than one or two planets in the sky at any given time. Each planet circles the sun on its own timetable—Mercury circles the sun every 88 days, while Saturn takes 29 years, for instance—so alignments aren’t on a set clock.
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