Viewing the June Night Sky

The month of June has featured a rare planetary alignment for the early riser. 

If you're like me and have to get up to pee before sunrise, if the skies are clear take a few moments to gaze to the East - Southeast.  Beginning with the morning of June 3rd you'd be able to view all five naked-eye planets align themselves in their proper rank order from the sun in the pre-dawn sky.

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn all in a row.   

This gets better as the month progresses.  Mercury becomes easier to view with the naked eye and with a pair of binoculars or a telescope the notoriously evasive Uranus and Neptune may be visible.  As the end of the month approaches the Moon joins-in on the action.

So whether you're getting out of bed an hour before sunrise to shower and dress before your morning commute, milk your cows or wring-out a kidney you might want to bookmark this page so you can reference what to look-for.

This is a rare event and you've almost the entire month of June to check it out.  Fingers-crossed for clear early morning skies...

Stellarium