These next few evenings – July 1 and 2, 2020 – let the moon be your guide to Antares, a red supergiant star whose humongous size is truly difficult to fathom!
On the heels of the June solstice, the new moon will sweep directly in front of the sun on Sunday, June 21, 2020, to stage an annular - ring of fire - solar eclipse for the world's Eastern Hemisphere.
These next several mornings - June 17, 18 and 19, 2020 - look east before sunrise to see the moon and Venus. You might spot the Pleiades star cluster nearby. On June 19, the moon will occult or cover over Venus. For most of us, the occultation will happen in daylight.
Enjoy the early morning sky on June 12 and 13, 2020, as the moon swings 3 degrees south of the red planet Mars. Meanwhile, although your eye won't catch it, Mars will swing 1.7 degrees south of distant Neptune.
When the lunar nodes pointed directly at the sun on June 20, 2020, the event marked the middle of the eclipse season. Shortly thereafter, an annular eclipse of the sun took place on June 21, 2020.
The moon will look full on June 4 and 5, 2020. We in the Northern Hemisphere will call it the Strawberry Moon. It'll shine near the star Antares. It'll undergo a very faint penumbral lunar eclipse.
Bruce McClure served as lead writer for EarthSky's popular Tonight pages from 2004 to 2021, when he opted for a much-deserved retirement. He's a sundial aficionado, whose love for the heavens has taken him to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and sailing in the North Atlantic, where he earned his celestial navigation certificate through the School of Ocean Sailing and Navigation. He also wrote and hosted public astronomy programs and planetarium programs in and around his home in upstate New York.