Skywatching in June 2026

What’s Up in the Sky in June?

June 2026 is a great month for planet spotters. Venus and Jupiter make a close approach on June 9, and by mid-month, Mercury has joined in too, lining up alongside the Moon for a rare three-planet spectacle around the 16.

Is it a coincidence that all this happens just before the June Solstice? Well, yes. But we’ll take it. We round off the month with the Strawberry Moon on the 29. Not a bad way to end June.

June’s Strawberry Moon

This month’s Full Moon, known as the Strawberry Moon, is at its most illuminated on June 29 at 23:56 UTC. The name refers to the wild strawberries that ripen this month, and which were gathered by Native American tribes. It follows May’s Flower Moon.

This month, we’ll also get both a Super New Moon and a Micro Full Moon.

The Sun, Moon, and Earth will line up on June 15, with the New Moon only 357,218 km (221,965 miles) from our home planet, thus making it a Super New Moon.

Two weeks later, the Full Moon on June 29 will be near its farthest point from Earth: 405,254 km (251,813 miles) to be precise, making it a Micro Full Moon.

The June Solstice

Each June, people across the Northern Hemisphere celebrate the June solstice as a positive turning point: the start of summer, the longest day of the year, and many sunlit evenings still ahead. In 2026, the June Solstice is on June 21 at 08:24 UTC.

In northern countries, like Norway, the Sun will set late in the evening on the June Solstice—or not at all in places where there’s Midnight Sun.

For many, especially those living in the Arctic region, the light days and evenings are very welcome after a long, dark winter. Needless to say, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, you are now heading for winter. This is why the June Solstice is both the shortest and longest day of the year.

The Summer Solstice Impact

The extreme version of bright summer nights is polar day, commonly referred to as the Midnight Sun, an extended period of daytime that lasts 24 hours over a number of days or weeks. The phenomenon occurs in or near the Arctic and Antarctic regions during summer.

For some, the excess of light around the June Solstice can also be exhausting. Svalbard-based vlogger Cecilia Blomdahl knows what she’s talking about: too much daylight during polar day can be just as disorienting as months of darkness during polar night.

Having lived in the Arctic for over ten years, Blomdahl finds polar night—when the Sun doesn‘t rise for months on Svalbard—easier. She describes it as a time of natural rest: “It’s like our world is taking a deep breath, and we’re doing the same.”

On the other hand, polar day—which in Svalbard lasts from late April to late August—brings no such calm: “It’s total daylight at all times. My body feels very stressed because there’s no natural way to turn it off.”

Venus and Jupiter Close Approach

Two of the brightest planets in the night sky, Venus and Jupiter, will appear remarkably close together on the evening of June 9.

For weeks, we have eagerly watched the two planets get closer and closer, and even though they will be at their closest on June 9, the pair will look quite cozy in the surrounding days as well.

This kind of planetary meetup doesn‘t happen that often, so it’s well worth stepping outside and looking west after sunset.

Mercury at Greatest Elongation East

On June 15, Mercury reaches its greatest elongation east. This makes the planet highly visible, and coincides with several close approaches.

A close approach—also known as an appulse—is when celestial bodies appear close to each other in the sky. Objects appear close from our perspective, even though they are far away from each other. The exciting thing about close approaches involving the Moon is that planets are very easy to notice once they appear next to the Moon in our night sky.

If you step outside after sunset on June 16, you might be able to see a Moon-Mercury close approach. The best date to see the close approach depends on your time zone. In New York, it’s June 16, while in Sydney, it’s June 17.

However, it’s not just the Moon and Mercury that are close: Venus and Jupiter are also nearby, having their own close approaches with the Moon around June 17.

All in all, this creates a dazzling line-up visible for a couple of days around June 16-18!

Where Is the Sun in the Zodiac in June?

As the Earth completes one orbit around the Sun each year, the Sun appears to travel through constellations within the zodiac, which astronomers define as a strip of sky either side of the ecliptic.

These include the 12 “traditional” constellations of the zodiac—such as Aquarius and Leo—plus the lesser-known constellation Ophiuchus, through which the Sun passes each year around December.

In June 2026, the Sun begins the month in the constellation Taurus before crossing into Gemini on June 22, around the solstice.

Readers familiar with horoscopes may notice these dates don’t match the zodiac sign dates they’re used to—in western astrology, Gemini typically runs from late May to late June.

This offset is a consequence of axial precession, a slow wobble in Earth’s rotational axis that has shifted the stars’ apparent positions since Western astrological signs were defined more than 2000 years ago. Back then, the signs matched the constellations the Sun appeared in more closely—but the two have since drifted apart by about 30°, or roughly one month.

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