Driftless Dark Skies: Venus and Mars

As we wend our way from spring to summer this month, Venus and Mars will be putting on a wonderful show in the evening sky.

Head out on June 1st and look west where the Sun is setting around 8:30pm. The first bright object to emerge will be Venus. It’s thirty degrees above the horizon. If you hold out your hands, that’s about three fists stacked above the horizon. As we enter twilight and the sky begins to darken, the stars will come out. Look to the right of Venus for Pollux and Castor, the twin stars of Gemini, in a wonderful alignment with Venus. Pollux is five degrees or three fingers from Venus, and Castor is another five degrees or three fingers from Pollux. For this one evening, the Twins become Triplets. You can enjoy the view until Venus sets around midnight.

You can also spot our other neighboring world. Mars is about as bright as Castor and is ten degrees or one fist above and to the left of Venus. Use whatever binoculars you have to enhance the view and to bring out the color of Mars. Behind Mars will be a light sprinkling of stars known as the Beehive. This is an open cluster of relatively young sibling stars all born together just a few hundred million years ago. Just to give a sense of scale, the light from the Beehive Cluster left about 600 years ago while the light from Mars left 17 minutes ago. Continue skygazing the next two evenings on June 2nd and 3rd as Mars “buzzes” the Beehive by passing in front of it.

On June 12th and 13th, it’s Venus’s turn to visit the Beehive. Again, the view is best with binoculars. Be sure to notice the different color and brilliance of Venus compared with Mars. Venus is much closer to Earth this month than Mars, with a light distance of only six minutes.

The Summer Solstice happens at 9:59am CDT on June 21st. Head out that evening to observe the first sunset of summer around 8:45pm. Continue to look west for an amazing gathering of Mars and Venus with the Crescent Moon. Venus will be below the Moon, and Mars will be to the left of the Moon. They will be so close together that you can easily cover all three with an outstretched hand. Use your binoculars to enjoy Earthshine or DaVinci Glow on the Crescent Moon. This is sunshine reflected by Earth and gently illuminating the dark part of the Moon. If it’s cloudy on the solstice, Mars, Venus, and the Crescent Moon will be almost as close the next evening.

Mars and Venus move closer together during June. They are at their closest on the 29th when they are only three degrees or two fingers apart. Then you can watch them slowly drift apart as we move from June to July.

You can enjoy stargazing and a twilight hike under the dark skies of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve on June 3rd as part of their celebration of National Trails Day. Starsplitters of Wyalusing has a Public Program on June 10th and an Activity Night for members and neighbors on June 15th. Happy summer!

John Heasley is an astronomy educator and stargazer who enjoys connecting people with the cosmos. He volunteers with NASA/JPL as a Solar System Ambassador, with the International Dark-Sky Association as an Advocate, and the International Astronomical Union as a Dark Sky Ambassador. For more information about stargazing in southwest WI, like Driftless Stargazing LLC on Facebook and find out whenever there’s something awesome happening in the skies.