Skywatchers, March Out: Mars Aligns With Regulus While Venus Blazes Bright

See Venus at dawn, Mars and Reg­u­lus close togeth­er, a Sat­urn-Moon meet­ing, and the Milky Way light­ing up dark skies.

Ray Brad­bury, a lit­er­ary giant who brought sci­ence fic­tion to the main­stream, once said, “We are an impos­si­bil­i­ty in an impos­si­ble uni­verse.” This cap­tures the won­der of look­ing up at the stars and feel­ing con­nect­ed to some­thing greate

Here’s what to watch this week:

1. Wan­ing Gib­bous Moon (June 13):
   Almost full at 97%, the moon shows amaz­ing crater details after sun­set. Use binoc­u­lars to see shad­ows along the ter­mi­na­tor for a stun­ning 3D effect.
2. Pio­neer 10 Anniver­sary (June 13):
   Pio­neer 10 became the first human-made object to pass Neptune’s orbit in 1983. It’s still trav­el­ing beyond our solar sys­tem today, among a few space­craft head­ing into inter­stel­lar space.
3. Mars & Reg­u­lus Close Approach (June 16–17):
   Mars and the bright star Reg­u­lus in Leo will be just 0.8° apart in the west­ern sky after sun­set, cre­at­ing a beau­ti­ful con­trast of Mars’ red and Reg­u­lus’ blue-white light.
4. Moon & Sat­urn Meet­up (June 19):
   Around 1:30 a.m., the third-quar­ter moon will appear near ringed Sat­urn in Aquar­ius. A tele­scope will reveal Saturn’s tilt­ed rings—worth wak­ing up ear­ly for!
5. Venus the Morn­ing Star (All Week):
   Venus shines bril­liant­ly before sun­rise, ris­ing about two hours ear­ly. It’s easy to spot and a great guide to the morn­ing sky.
6. Con­stel­la­tion Spot­light – Leo the Lion:
   Look for the back­ward ques­tion mark “sick­le” shape mark­ing Leo’s head with Reg­u­lus at the base. Mars will be near Reg­u­lus this week.
7. Deep Sky High­lights:

• The Milky Way’s core ris­es late at night, a stun­ning dense star and gas ring vis­i­ble in dark skies.
• M13 Her­cules Glob­u­lar Clus­ter looks like a fuzzy ball but reveals thou­sands of stars through tele­scopes.
• Bee­hive Clus­ter (M44) in Can­cer is great through binoc­u­lars after sun­set.

When you gaze at these won­ders, remem­ber you’re shar­ing a time­less human expe­ri­ence of mar­veling at the cos­mos.