Thursday June 6 to Thursday June 13

The New Moon is Thursday, June 6. Comet 12P Pons-Brooks is fading, this will be the last week to view it in binoculars as it moves past Sirius in  Canis Major. In the morning the lineup of planets is now Saturn, Mars and Jupiter as Mercury is lost in the twilight.

The New Moon is Thursday, June 6.

Evening sky on Saturday, June 8 as seen from Adelaide at 18:42 ACST (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).   Comet 12P is now not far from the bright star Sirius when the sky is fully dark. The inset shows the binocular view at this time.

The comet has faded to magnitude 7, and you need strong binoculars or a telescope to see it. Over the week the comet will climb higher into darker skies fading as it goes. Updated spotters charts are here.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset).

Morning sky on Saturday, June 8  as seen from Adelaide at 06:19 ACST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Saturn and Mars are readily visible. Jupiter joins the pair low on the horizon. Mercury is lost in the twilight.

 

The inset is the telescopic view of Saturn at this time.

 

 

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise).

Whole sky on Saturday, June 8 as seen from Adelaide at 18:41 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen).

Orion is lost to view. Bright Sirius is still dominant in the north-western sky. Scorpius now well visible above the Eastern horizon. Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are a wealth of binocular objects to discover. The fainter clusters will be be better with the moon no longer in the evening sky.

 

 

   

 Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

 

 

Mercury is lost in the morning twilight

Venus is lost in the morning twilight.

Mars is rising in the morning sky.

Jupiter is low the the morning twilight sky.

Saturn climbs higher in the morning sky.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.


 

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/