June is midsummer and it never gets really dark, even from the south of the UK. So our map is for 11 pm, though you can start to find the June constellations from about 10:30 pm onwards.
Compared with the skies of winter and spring, there are no big and bright constellations, but there are four bright stars to look for (in addition to any planets that happen to be around, which will all be low in the sky at this time of year). Most obvious is Arcturus, which is one of the brightest stars in the sky and has a noticeable golden colour as it’s a red giant star. There’s another red giant low down, Antares, which is even more strongly coloured. Then high up to the top left of our map is Vega, which is getting on for overhead.
We’re looking away from the main band of the Milky Way here, which is one reason there are fewer bright stars than in winter or late summer. So you have to work a bit to pick out the constellations. The lines on the map show a few of the patterns that you can pick out. Starting with Arcturus, look for the kite-shape of Boötes the Herdsman (that’s pronounced bo-oh-teez, by the way), then the pretty semicircle of Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown. Below Corona is a faint constellation, Serpens, the Serpent, whose stars are mostly of third and fourth magnitude, like those of Corona. Actually this is only half of Serpens, the head (known in Latin as Serpens Caput), because the serpent is draped around Ophiuchus.
Ophiuchus is the Serpent-Bearer, and its stars are very spread out. The most obvious are the pair of stars in mid sky, known as Yed Prior (the brighter) and Yed Posterior. From those you can follow the lines of stars shown on the map. Then below Ophiuchus is Scorpius, the Scorpion. Note that astronomers call this Scorpius, not Scorpio – that’s left to astrologers! Antares marks the centre of the scorpion, with its claws extending towards the rather faint constellation of Libra, to its west. The scorpion has a curved tail, but most of this is either low in the sky as seen from the UK or below the horizon.
Above Ophiuchus look for a quadrilateral of stars known as the Keystone, from its shape. This is the most recognisable part of Hercules, who was of course a mythological figure of that name. Hercules is best known for its great globular cluster of stars, M13, with a lesser globular cluster, M92, nearby. You can find details of how to spot them in our Young Stargazers page on Hercules (which older stargazers will also find helpful!).
Over to the west is Virgo, and beyond the edge of this map is Leo, which we covered in our April map, now setting at an angle to the horizon.
And over at top left is Vega, in the constellation of Lyra, the Lyre. More about this interesting constellation in July.
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