Planets on display

The King of the Solar System reaches opposition this June, ruling the skies all through the evening and until dawn

Jupiter reaches opposition this month, reaching magnitude 2.6 in the evening sky

Without a shadow of doubt, this month’s late-evening sky belongs to Jupiter. This bloated gas giant world – so enormous Earth could fit across its face a dozen or so times, and fit inside it over a thousand times with some room to spare – will look like a strikingly bright electric blue-white spark in the sky to the naked eye, far brighter than any other star or planet in the sky – though technically Venus will be brighter, it will be dimmed a great deal by its proximity to the Sun in the sky this month.

If you have a pair of binoculars you’ll see that Jupiter isn’t alone. Look at it through binoculars on any clear night and you’ll see some tiny pinprick stars very close to it, up to four on some nights. These ‘stars’ are actually the four largest and brightest of greedy Jupiter’s extended family of 79 moons, and the number you will see at any time will depend on when you’re looking: you might see two, three or even four in a variety of different arrangements – all four on one side of Jupiter, or a pair on either side, or a single moon on one side of the planet and a trio of moons on the other. If you want to know which star is which moon any good astronomy or planetarium app for your mobile device will tell you.

Through a telescope you’ll be able to see Jupiter’s disc, flattened down slightly at its poles because of its rapid spin. Even a small telescope will have enough magnification to show you a couple of dark bands of cloud across Jupiter’s light disc, and large instruments reveal its face is dotted and decorated with many fascinating ovals and streaks of cloud, including the famous Great Red Spot, a storm system larger than the Earth itself.

If you want to see Jupiter in the sky this month you won’t really have to look for it – it will be so bright you won’t need to look for it as it will stand out starkly against the background stars of Ophiuchus as it blazes in the sky. Rising a good hour and a half before midnight, it will dominate the sky right through the night until the approach of dawn makes the sky too bright to see it.

In mid-June this behemoth of a planet will have company in the sky. On the evening of 16 June the almost-full Moon will be shining just 11 degrees to its upper right, and 24 hours later, on the 17th, the full Moon will lie less than three degrees – or six Moon widths – away from it, to its upper left. The pair will make a lovely sight through a pair of binoculars as they sink into the west together just before sunrise