[Lively music]
[Preston Dyches] What's Up for June?
A planetary breakup,
prime viewing for a well-known star cluster
and the constellation Lyra.
The gathering of four naked-eye planets we've been enjoying
in the morning sky for the past few months,
including several close conjunctions,
is beginning to break up.
Over the next few months, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter
and Venus will appear increasingly spread out
across the morning sky.
So much so that Venus and Saturn
will make their exits
as morning objects
for most observers by September.
Look for this increasingly
spaced out planetary procession
in June, and note that the crescent moon jumps
into the lineup on the morning of the 23rd.
[whoosh]
June is an excellent time to observe
one of the best known globular star clusters, M13,
also known as the Hercules Cluster.
Globular clusters are spherical collections
of stars, tightly packed together in their centers.
M13 itself contains several hundred thousand stars.
Globular clusters are also extremely old.
The stars in M13
are thought to be around 12 billion years old,
which is approaching
the age of the universe itself.
Our home galaxy,
the Milky Way, is known to have
about 150 globular clusters.
They orbit outside the galaxy's disk, traveling
tens of thousands of light years above
and below its spiral arms and most of its stars.
Now, the Hercules cluster is best observed with a telescope,
and larger telescopes
will allow you to see more of the cluster's stars.
But you can also find it with a pair of binoculars
where it'll look like a hazy little spot.
[music]
Find M13 in the constellation Hercules,
which is high in the east
in the first couple of hours after dark in June.
First, look for the bright stars
Vega and Arcturus.
Then find the four stars that comprise "the Keystone,"
which is the pattern making up the central part of Hercules.
You'll find M13 about a third of the way
between the two stars
on the western, or leading, side of the Keystone.
So check out the great globular
cluster in Hercules,
M13, in June, and find yourself staring at an ancient
gathering of stars that soars high above the Milky Way.
[whoosh]
Finally, in June, a quick introduction
to one of the smaller
constellations that's home to one of the brightest stars.
That's the constellation Lyra.
It represents a lyre, or harp,
played by the musician Orpheus in Greek mythology.
In Arab cultures, as well as ancient
Egypt and India, Lyra was seen as an eagle.
And the Inca of South America saw it as a llama.
Find Lyra by looking for Vega, which is the westernmost of the
three bright stars in the Summer Triangle.
In the Northern Hemisphere,
you'll find it halfway up the eastern sky
in the first couple of hours after dark in June.
Vega is by far
the brightest star in Lyra.
It's the fifth brightest star in the sky
and the second brightest in the Northern Hemisphere,
after Sirius.
A pair of binoculars will help you see the other stars in Lyra,
which form a sort of parallelogram
hanging beneath it.
It's sometimes described as looking a bit
like a diamond ring with Vega as the diamond.
And that's not the only ring in Lyra.
It's also home to the famous Ring Nebula,
where a star has blown off most of its outer layers,
leaving behind a remnant star known as a white dwarf.
So let the bright star Vega lead you
to Lyra, the harp constellation, in the June sky.
And if you see it as an eagle or a diamond ring, or a llama,
well, that's perfectly OK, too.
Here are the phases of the Moon for June.
Stay up to date with all of NASA's missions
to explore the solar system and beyond at NASA.gov.
I'm Preston Dyches from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
and that's What's Up for this month.