June stargazing is definitely a late show, with true darkness not setting in over Butler until after 10 p.m. Mercifully, the best celestial show this month happens during evening twilight in the Western sky. The bright planets Jupiter and Venus are the main players, with the moon and Mercury adding to the fun.

All this spring, the bright planets Jupiter and Venus have been drawing closer and closer to each other, and the grand finale is this month. Venus is the brighter of the two. On June 9 they’ll be passing very close to each other in the low Western sky during evening twilight, just 1.5 degrees apart! That’s less than the width of two of your fingers held at arm’s length. It would look like cat’s eyes in the sky, but Venus is much brighter than Jupiter. Of course, they’re nowhere close to each other physically but nearly in the same line of sight. Venus is a little over 111 million miles from Earth, and Jupiter’s over 560 million miles away. Close conjunctions like this happen on a regular basis because all the planets in the solar system, including our Earth, all orbit the sun in nearly the same plane, traveling at their respective speeds around our home star.

The really cool thing is that you can get both planets in the same field of view with binoculars or a small telescope. What’s not cool is that because Jupiter’s so far away this month and Venus is completely cloud-covered, you’re not going to see much detail. They’ll also appear a little fuzzy because of the blurring effects of Earth’s atmosphere near the horizon.

The Summer Solstice this year is on June 22 at 2:25 a.m. It’s also known as the first day of astronomical summer and the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. Truthfully, it's really tough on us stargazers! It means the shortest night of the year and also means staying up super late to begin your celestial adventures. The good news is that the nights very gradually get longer night by night after the solstice, and stargazing can begin earlier and earlier. In the meantime, get an afternoon nap so you can enjoy the show! It’s worth staying up for.

Independent of all the planet congestion in the early evening, the transition from spring to summer stars and constellations. If you lie back on that reclining lawn chair and look in the high northern heavens, you'll easily see the Big Dipper that outlines the rear end and tail of Ursa Major, the Big Bear. Not far from the end of the Dipper's handle, you'll see a super bright orange star. That's Arcturus, one of the brightest stars in our sky. Just follow the arc of the Big Dippers' handle beyond the end of the handle, and you'll run right into Arcturus. That little stargazing trick is known as “arc to Arcturus.”

Arcturus is considered a red giant star, around 22 million miles in diameter. Our sun isn't even a million miles across. Arcturus is 37 light-years away, or about 210 trillion miles, distant. The light that we see from Arcturus tonight left that star in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall came down. Arcturus is also the brightest star in the constellation Bootes the hunting farmer, which looks more like a giant nocturnal kite. Arcturus is at the kite's tail.

Over in the eastern skies, summer stars are making their initial evening appearance. Leading the way is Vega, the brightest star of Lyra the Harp. A little to the lower left of Vega is Deneb, the brightest star of Cygnus the Swan. Within the constellation Cygnus, you can easily see the asterism, the “Northern Cross,” rising sideways. Deneb lies at the top of the cross and is at least 1500 light-years away, but it could be much farther!

Another great summer constellation is rising in the low southeast, Scorpius the Scorpion. It's one of those few constellations that really resembles what it's supposed to be. Its brightest star, Antares, marks the heart of the celestial scorpion. Look to the upper right of Antares, and you'll see three stars lined up diagonally that outline the great beast's head. Antares is an incredibly vast star, so large that if you put it in our solar system in place of our sun, the Earth would be inside the inner core of Antares.

Stay up well past midnight, and you'll eventually see the constellation Sagittarius rising behind Scorpius. According to Greek and Roman mythology, Sagittarius is supposed to outline a centaur, half man-half horse, shooting an arrow. With your imagination in overdrive, you can see how that might be. With no imagination, Sagittarius looks like a giant coffee or teapot!

If you’re far enough away from heavy urban light, it’ll look as if the Sagittarius teapot is steaming! That steam is the brightest part of the Milky Way band that runs from Sagittarius in the south to the constellation Cassiopeia in the north. When you gaze upon that band, you’re looking at the combined starlight in the plane of our spiral-shaped Milky Way galaxy. The band is wider and brighter toward Sagittarius but that’s in the direction of the center of our galaxy. It would be much brighter than what we see, but dark clouds of gas and dust block much of the light. Some say that without the blocking gas and dust, that part of the sky would be brighter than a full moon.

Enjoy the shorter but wonderful nights of June!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is also the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and at adventurepublications.net. Contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.