Saturday, June 6Saturns largest and brightest moon, Titan, sits due south of the ringed planet in the early morning sky. In a telescope, the magnitude 9 moon should be relatively easy to spot its the brightest point of light after the planet itself. Titan orbits Saturn every 16 days; on June 14 it will sit due north of the planet and will return to its most southerly point again on the 22nd.

Swing away from Saturn to the southeast in the two hours before sunrise to find the famous star Fomalhaut in the small constellation Piscis Austrinus, rising in the southeast. Magnitude 1.2 Fomalhaut is not only the brightest star in the constellation, but also one of the brightest stars in the sky, ranking 18th. Only about 25 light-years away, Fomalhaut is surrounded by a massive disk of material that astronomers believe could be forming planets. In fact, astronomers long thought theyd directly imaged one such nascent world only to recently discover that what theyd seen was actually the aftermath of a collision between two icy planetesimals.

Sunday, June 7The constellation Perseus climbs above the northeastern horizon a few hours before sunrise this morning. With a bright Moon on the opposite side of the sky, its a great time to tour the Heros brighter treasures, the most famous of which may be the Double Cluster, comprising NGC 884 and NGC 869 in the western (upper right) region of the constellation. These two young, bright open star clusters are about 7,600 and 6,800 light-years away, respectively, with ages between 3 million and 5 million years. In a dark sky, you may spot them without binoculars, but this morning the Moon will likely make that impossible. Binoculars or a small scope, however, will bring out increasing levels of richness in the clusters; youll see NGC 884 to the east of NGC 869, which lies farther west.

The constellation is also home to the famous California Nebula (NGC 1499). This emission nebula has a magnitude of roughly 6 but its dim, diffuse glow will be hard to spot even with a telescope, given the bright Moon. Return to this constellation on a moonless morning later in the month or even next month, when the 2.5-long nebula will be higher above the horizon at the same time each night in Perseus eastern region. Its shape shows up best in long-exposure photographs.

Monday, June 8Today is the 395th anniversary of the birth of Italian-French astronomer Giovanni Cassini. You most likely know the name either from the Cassini Division that separates Saturns A and B rings or from the NASA mission that spent over a decade exploring Saturn and its extensive system of moons. Cassinis planetary science claim to fame is threefold: He measured the scale of the solar system, discovered four moons of Saturn, and identified the large gap in Saturns rings.

Early morning is the best time to get a look at the ringed planet, which rises around 11:30 P.M. local time. By 3 to 4 A.M., its higher in the sky for easy viewing. You can find magnitude 0.4 Saturn in the south, just 5 northeast of brilliant magnitude 2.6 Jupiter. A bright, 92-percent-lit Moon hangs nearby. Farther southwest is the familiar Teapot asterism of Sagittarius.

The disk of Saturn appears 18" wide, while its rings stretch roughly 41" across. Although the background sky will be bright thanks to the Moon, you may still be able to spot the dark Cassini Division, which appears as a thin gap but actually spans an average of nearly 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers), although its width varies.

The Moon passes 2 south of Jupiter at 1 P.M. EDT today. Nine hours later, the Moon passes 3 south of Saturn at 10 P.M. EDT. But both events take place when the planets arent visible.

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The Sky This Week from June 5 to 12 - Astronomy Magazine