June’s full moon, also known as the Strawberry Moon, will occur on June 21 at 9:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time (0108 UTC June 22), according to the US Naval Observatory. Observers in Oceania will see an almost full moon pass in front of the star AntaresAlpha Scorpii, the brightest star in Scorpionthe Scorpio, on June 20.
In New York City, the moonrise will take place at June 21 at 8:49 PM EDT. The sun will set at 8:31 p.m EDT on that day. This full moon takes place on the day after the Summer solstice, the longest day of the year; Full moons occur approximately every 19 to 20 years within a day of the solstice. There is some disagreement about what counts as a full moon falling ‘on the solstice’ – it depends on how close time one wants the two phenomena to exist. For example, the summer solstice in 2024 is due on June 20 at 4:05 PM EDT, and the full moon is just over 30 hours later.
The moon will transit – or occult – Antares the day before the full moon, but the event will not be visible from New York. North American sky watchers will see a very short passage the moon just south of, or “below”, Antares.
Top telescope choice!
Looking for a telescope to see the moon? We recommend the Celestron Astro Fi 102 as the top choice in our best telescope for beginners guide.
A full moon occurs when the moon is opposite the sun with the Soil between the two. On Earth’s night side, viewers will then be able to see a fully illuminated moon. Full moons are reckoned relative to the positions of the moon and Earth; the timing of a full moon is the same all over the world, meaning that any perceived differences in such timing are solely due to one’s time zone. While the moon will become full at 9:08 PM EDT in New York, for a London-based sky the full moon will fall at 1:08 AM local time the next day, and a Japan-based observer would see it happen at 9:08 AM. am local time.
Related: Full Moon June 2024: The Strawberry Moon follows the solstice
While many around the world will only do that see the moon Passing close to Antares, those in a swathe of the Pacific Ocean will see the moon pass in front of the star, which is the brightest in the constellation of Scorpio, the Scorpion. One of the larger cities from which this occultation will be visible is Port Moresby, in Papua New Guinea, where you can see the moon touching Antares on June 21 at 8:10 PM local time, according to In-the-sky.organd Antares will appear from behind the moon at 8:34 p.m
Other places where one can see the occultation include Suva, Fiji, where Antares passes behind the moon June 21 at 11:04 PM local time and will be released on June 22 at 12:21 a.m. local time.
Unlike moon phases, observing occultations is influenced by one’s location. In the case of lunar occultations, our natural satellite is so close that moving from one part of the Earth’s surface to another can change the apparent position of the Moon relative to the Earth stars by a maximum of two degrees. So an observer in Honolulu, which is further north than Fiji or the Solomon Islands, will see the moon pass just south of Antares, in close conjunction at about 1:33 a.m. local time on June 21; the moon will pass about 0.3 degrees south of the star, less than a single lunar diameter (the moon is so bright that Antares is difficult to see so close).
Other regions will be on the dayside of the Earth, so the moon would not have risen yet or already set when the occultation takes place.
Visible planets
In addition to seeing the occult moon Antares, Saturn, Mars And Jupiter will also be visible in the early morning sky; Mercury, Venus and Jupiter will be largely lost in sunlight for people in the mid-northern latitudes.
Saturn will be the first to rise – the planet will rise 12:34 pm EDT on June 22 in New York City. Mars follows at 1:31 a.m. EDT. Saturn will be in the constellation Aquarius, and because it is relatively bright, it will stand out against the fainter stars of Aquarius. In many locations in cities, Aquarius is barely visible, so Saturn appears to be the only bright ‘star’ in that part of the constellation. the southeastern sky. Mars is recognizable by its red-orange color and the planet is in the constellation Pisces, another group of mostly fainter stars. At about 3:30 a.m. EDT, Mars will appear to be about 10 degrees above the eastern horizon and to the left of Saturn, which will be about 30 degrees high in the southeast.
Jupiter rises just before sunrise, at 3:51 a.m. EDT; in New York the sunrise is over 5:25 am EDT on June 22. Around 5 a.m. EDT, Jupiter will be 10 degrees above the east-northeast horizon and the sky will lighten. Jupiter, Mars and Saturn will form a line that makes an angle of about 45 degrees to the horizon, with Mars at 27 degrees and Saturn at 40 degrees to the southeast. A fun exercise is to see how close to sunrise you can see all three planets.
For both the planets and the Sun, rising times will be similar at other mid-northern latitude locations such as Chicago, Sacramento and Denver.
For those looking at the sky from south of the equator, Saturn and Mars will appear higher in the sky by the time the sun rises. Because June 20th is it winter solstice there it will be the longest night of the year. Another effect on planetary viewing is the angle that the ecliptic – the projection of Earth’s orbit on the sky and the apparent path of the Sun relative to the background stars – makes with the horizon. Planets embrace the ecliptic; none of them move more than a few degrees away from it. Mercury’s orbit has the highest inclination with respect to the ecliptic plane, at about 7 degrees.
Related stories:
— Full moon calendar 2024: when you can see the next full moon
– Best telescope offers
— Best telescopes 2024
From a mid-southern latitude, such as in Melbourne, Australia (where the full moon occurs on June 22 at 11:08 a.m. local time), sunset is early, at 5:08 PM local time and the full moon rises at 4:58 PM local time. Saturn will rise on June 23 at 11:17 PM local time, followed by Mars at 3:27 AM local time, and Jupiter – which is almost lost in sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere – at 5:38 AM local time. From Melbourne, the three planets will form a rough line from Jupiter in the northeast to Saturn in the north around 6:30 a.m. in the area. As the sun rises later – at 7:36 a.m. local time on June 23 – by the time the sky begins to lighten, Saturn will have moved west and be more than halfway (about 55 degrees high) to the zenith.