The Sky This Week - Thursday June 13 to Thursday June 20

The Full Moon is Monday June 17. Mars is visible low in the evening twilight with Mercury near it. Mars and Mercury are closest on the 18th. Jupiter is easily visible in the evening skies and wass at opposition, when it was biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on the 11th. Jupiter is close to the Moon on the 16th.Saturn climbs higher in the late evening skies and is close to the Moon on the 19th.  Venus is closing in on the horizon and is close to the bright red star Aldebaran on the 16th.

The Full Moon is Monday June 17.

Morning  sky on Saturday, June 15  as seen from Adelaide at 6:22 ACST (60 minutes before sunrise).  Three bright planets can be seen. Jupiter and Saturn are above the western and north-western horizon. Venus is low above the eastern horizon.

 Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).

Morning sky on Sunday, June 16 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 6:18 ACST (60 minutes before sunrise).  Venus is very close to the thin crescent Moon.

 Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).

Sky at 20:00 ACST on Sunday, June 16 looking east as seen from Adelaide. Jupiter is just after opposition, and high above the eastern horizon not far from the almost full Moon with Saturn below. The left upper insert inset shows the telescopic view of Jupiter at this 21:35, with Io just about to go behind Jupiter. The left lower insert that of Saturn.

Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time, click to embiggen.

Evening sky on Tuesday, June 18  as seen looking north-west from Adelaide at 17:55 ACST (45 minutes after sunset). Mars is in the constellation of Gemini, Mercury is just above the horizon.

Similar views will be seen throughout Australia at the equivalent local time (45 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen).

Venus is still bright in the morning twilight although it is coming closer to the horizon. During thewek it comes close to the Hyades star cluster, and on the morning of the 16th it is closest to the bright red star Aldebaran

Mercury  climbs higher in the evening twilight, heading towards Mars, but is still best seen with a level, clear horizon. On the 18th Mars and Mercury are that their closest, with Mercury the brighter of the two. After this Mercury is above Mars.

Jupiter  Jupiterwas s at opposition, when it wass biggest and brightest as seen from Earth, on the 11th. However it is well worth observeing for some time after opposition. It is visible al night long and is a good telescope target in the evening, being highest above the northern horizon around 11 pm. Amateurs with medium to large telescopes may want to monitor the “unravelling” of Jupiter’s red spot.

Mars is in Gemini. Mars starts the week close to  Wasat, delta Geminorum then moves away during the week. Mars sets around 7:00pm. On the 18th Mars and Mercury are that their closest, with Mercury the brighter of the two. After this Mercury is above Mars.

Saturn  climbs higher in the evening sky but it still best for telescopic viewing in the early morning. The waning Moon will be close to Saturn on the 19th.

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

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/