Summer Sky

Trifid Nebula Trifid Nebula ©Jason Ware & APOD — ©Jason Ware & APOD

by Gerald Rezes

June 21, 2026, at 2:26 am PDT marks the beginning of the Summer Solstice. Our Milky Way galaxy’s heart is the main attraction; filling the summer constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius and arcing across the sky. In addition, there are many Messier objects in the Milky Way’s heart that are easily seen by even small telescopes. M8, the Lagoon Nebula, is a large, red star-forming nebula located just west of the tip of the “teapot”. Slightly above M8, is M20, the Trifid Nebula. The Trifid is a beautiful rose-like red nebula along with a blue reflective part. Rounding out the emission nebulas are M16 (Eagle Nebula) and M17 (Omega Nebula). The Hubble Telescope took a classic image of the gaseous pillars in M16.

The constellation for me that signifies summer is Scorpius. Scorpius distinctly resembles its namesake from the long, curved tail to the claws. At the heart of the scorpion lays another beast, a supergiant star 800 times larger than the Sun, Antares. Right next to Antares is M4 a large, nearby globular cluster that is bright as magnitude 5.6 making it easily visible through smaller scopes. M4 is not the only globular cluster in the neighborhood; there are many, M80, M62, M19 to name a few. In addition, there are several open clusters. One of the biggest is M7, right at the end of Scorpius’ tail giving it the nickname of “The Scorpion’s Tail.” M6, the Butterfly Cluster is another brilliant open cluster near M7.

Moon Phases

Jun. 21 – First Quarter
Jun. 29 – Full Moon
Jul. 7 – Last Quarter
Jul. 14 – New Moon
Jul. 21 – First Quarter
Jul. 29 – Full Moon
Aug. 6 – Last Quarter
Aug. 12 – New Moon
Aug. 20 – First Quarter
Aug. 28 – Full Moon
Sep. 4 – Last Quarter
Sep. 11 – New Moon
Sep. 18 – First Quarter
(Source: Calendar-12.com)

With so much to see in the Milky Way’s heart, one almost forgets that there is much more sky to look at in the shortened summer nights. The asterism, the Summer Triangle, makes its way from east to west throughout summer. The triangle is made up of the bright stars Vega in Lyra, Deneb in Cygnus, and Altair in Aquila. Giving way to another asterism, Cygnus, the swan, is also referred to as the Northern Cross, a much larger cousin to its Southern counterpart. In Lyra, lays M57, the Ring Nebula. The Ring Nebula would be a hard object to spot in the vastness of the sky seeing that it is a little planetary nebula, but it is nicely

situated right in between the bottom two stars of Lyra. This position makes it possible to spot M57 even in a small telescope. Another well-situated celestial object is the globular cluster M13 in Hercules. M13, the Great Globular, is one of the biggest and brightest seen in the northern hemisphere and lays nearly in the middle of two of the “keystone” stars in Hercules.

There will be a partial (93%) lunar eclipse on August 27 starting at 6:25 PM and ending 12:02 AM (8/28).

Planets

Mercury is starts summer as an evening planet. It transitions to the morning sky with inferior conjunction on July 12. Highest altitude for morning is August 4. Superior solar conjunction on August 25 and back to the evening sky.
Venus is a brilliant evening planet in the west throughout summer.
Mars is visible in the evening throughout summer with serval pairings with the moon and planets.
Jupiter is at solar conjunction on July 29 and transitions to the morning. Jupiter and the moon will be close on September 8.
Saturn is a morning planet throughout summer. There will be pairings with the moon each month.
Uranus (Taurus) is a morning planet for summer. Mars and Uranus have a conjunction on July 3.
Neptune (Pisces) is mostly a morning planet for summer.
Pluto (Capricornus): The best time to view Pluto is on a moonless night throughout summer. Pluto is at opposition on July 26.
Ref: In-The-Sky.org & The Sky Live