Venus and Mars will form a pair in the morning sky, visible before the start of dawn. Jupiter will be high in the sky with Neptune close by. Mercury will be low in the morning sky.
Orbital diagrams for the inner planets December 2008 to March 2009, April to July 2009, and the outer planets for 2009.
| Date (NZDT) | Diary of Solar System Events in June 2009 for New Zealand |
| June 3 | 82% waxing Moon 2.8° from Spica, magnitude 1.1, brightest star in Virgo. |
| June 6 | Venus at greatest elongation 46° west of Sun. |
| June 7 | Full Moon 2° from Antares, magnitude 1.1, brightest star in Scorpius. Closest early evening |
| June 8 | Full Moon at 6:12am NZST (Jun 17, 15:12 UT). |
| June 8 | Moon furthest south, resulting in the highest southern hemisphere transit for the month. |
| June 11 | Moon at apogee, its greatest distance from the Earth for the Lunar month, 405784 km. |
| June 14 | Mercury at greatest elongation 23° west of Sun. |
| June 14 | 72% lit waning Moon 3.5° from Jupiter and 3.0° from Neptune. Closest in early morning sky. |
| June 16 | Jupiter stationary. |
| June 16 | Waning Moon, 52% lit, 6.4° to lower left of Uranus morning sky. |
| June 16 | Moon at last quarter 10:15am NZST (Jun 15, 22:15 UT). |
| June 20 | Crescent Moon, 13% lit, 7° to lower left of Mars and 9° from Venus, morning sky. |
| June 21 | Sun at southern winter solstice soon after sunset. Sun is at its lowest for the year at midday in southern skies. |
| June 21 | Crescent Moon, 6% lit, 9° to left of Mercury low in dawn sky. Moon also 2.5° below the Pleiades. |
| June 22 | Venus and Mars just under 2° apart, morning sky. |
| June 22 | Moon furthest north, resulting in the lowest southern hemisphere transit for the month. |
| June 23 | Mercury just over 3° from star Aldebaran, magnitude 1.0, low to northeast morning sky. |
| June 23 | New Moon at 7:35 am, (June 22, 19:35 UT). |
| June 23 | Pluto at opposition. |
| June 23 | Moon at perigee, its closest to the Earth for the Lunar month, 358016 km. |
| June 26 | 17% lit waxing Moon 7.5° from Regulus, magnitude 1.4, brightest star in Leo, evening sky. |
| June 28 | 37% lit waxing Moon 7.5° above Saturn evening sky. |
| June 29 | Moon at first quarter 11:28pm NZST (11:28 UT). |
| June 30 | 59% waxing Moon 5° to lower left of Spica, magnitude 1.1, brightest star in Virgo.
Closest at Moonset after midnight. |
Return to Top of page. Diary of events. RASNZ home page
MERCURY makes a brief and rather low appearance in the morning sky
during June. It rises about 100 minutes before the Sun on June 1 and will be low and nearly
round to the northeast 40 minutes before sunrise. At magnitude 2.1 it will be a difficult
object.
By mid June Mercury will rise some 2 hours before the Sun and so be a little higher in the dawn sky. It will also be a brighter object so easier to see in the twilight. The planet is in Taurus during June. By the morning of June 20 it will be directly between Aldebaran and the Pleiades, about one-third of the distance from the star to the cluster. At magnitude 0, Mercury will be noticeably brighter than the star. The following morning the crescent Moon will be to the northeast, only 6% lit, and just over 9° to the left of Mercury.
At the end of June, Mercury will rise just over an hour before the Sun so, despite having a magnitude -0.9, will be a low and fairly difficult in the morning twilight.
VENUS will continue be high, bright and obvious in the morning sky
before sunrise during June. At the beginning of the month it will rise about 4 am, but by the
end of June will rise about half an hour later. The planet starts in Pisces, moving into
Aries on June 11 having spent one day crossing a corner of Cetus. Venus moves on into Taurus on
June 29.
On the morning of June 20, the thin crescent Moon will be just over 9° to the lower left of Venus. Mars will be between them about one-quarter of the distance away from Venus towards the Moon.
MARS starts June in Pisces, on its border with Aries, which it
enters on June 2. At the beginning of June, Mars will be just over 5° to the lower right
of Venus. As the two planets move through Aries, Venus will overtake Mars, passing to the
right of the fainter planet. The two are closest, just under 2° apart on June 22 with
their separation being only slightly more for a couple of mornings either side of the date.
Venus will then be to the upper right of Mars. On June 28 and 29 the two planets will be just
about level in the morning sky, with Venus just of 3° to the right of Mars.
On the morning of June 20 the crescent Moon will be 7° to the lower left of Mars with Venus 2° away from Mars and on the other side it to the Moon.
JUPITER, will rise about 11 pm on June 1 and 2 hours
earlier by the end of the Month. Thus, by the second half of June it will readily visible late
evening, to the east. Fomalhaut, at magnitude 1.2 the brightest star in
Piscis Austrinus will be 20° to the right
of Jupiter and at about the same altitude.
Jupiter will remain in Capricornus throughout June. It is stationary on June 16, so will be slow moving all month. It passed close to Neptune at the end of May, and will be three-quarters of degree from it when stationary. After June 16 Jupiter will start moving back towards Neptune and the distance between the two will decrease again.
Neptune at magnitude 7.9 will be a rather faint object in binoculars, but should be detectable on a dark night. Late in the evening Neptune will be to the upper left of Jupiter and about half a degree below the 5th magnitude star μCap. There will be no other stars as bright as Neptune between the 3 objects. By the morning with the planets much higher, the sky will have rotated so that Neptune is to the lower left of Jupiter, with μCap to the left of Neptune and slightly higher.
On June 13 the waning Moon, 76% lit, joins Jupiter and Neptune. At midnight it will be some 3.5° to the left of Jupiter. By the morning before sunrise, the Moon will have moved a little further from Jupiter and now appear below and to the right of the planet.
SATURN will be setting by midnight early in June and before
11 pm by the end of the month. Thus the best time for viewing the planet will be the early
evening once the sky has darkened. Also during June the rings will start closing again as
the Earth moves towards their plane. The planet remains in Leo with Regulus some 16° away,
to the lower left of Saturn early evening.
The 37% lit waxing Moon will be some 7.5° above Saturn on the night of June 28. The previous night a thinner Moon will be rather further away to the left of the planet.
Saturn's brightest satellite Titan will be eclipsed by the planet twice during the month on June 8 and June 24. However the first eclipse starts soon after sunset at 5:40 while the second starts before sunset. The eclipses end at 11:30 and 10:50 respectively, by which times the planet will be low in the sky making observation difficult.
More details on observing these events and a table of the times of all the eclipses can be found on the page of eclipses of Titan and Rhea. This page also has details of a shadow transit of Titan across Saturn on June 16, the latter part of which is observable from New Zealand. Moderate sized telescopes are needed to see these events.