Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2017 June 5
See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
 the highest resolution version available.

Highlights of the Summer Sky
Illustration Credit & Copyright: Universe2go.com

Explanation: What's up in the sky this summer? The featured graphic gives a few highlights for Earth's northern hemisphere. Viewed as a clock face centred at the bottom, early summer sky events fan out toward the left, while late summer events are projected toward the right. Objects relatively close to Earth are illustrated, in general, as nearer to the cartoon figure with the telescope at the bottom centre -- although almost everything pictured can be seen without a telescope. Highlights of this summer's sky include that Jupiter will be visible after sunset during June, while Saturn will be visible after sunset during August. A close grouping of the Moon, Venus and the bright star Aldebaran will occur during mid-July. In early August, the Perseids meteor shower peaks. Surely the most famous pending astronomical event occurring this summer, though, will be a total eclipse of the Sun visible over a thin cloud-free swath across the USA on 21 August.

Follow APOD on: Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram, or Twitter
Tomorrow's picture: star gone


< | Archive | Submissions | Index | Search | Calendar | RSS | Education | About APOD | Discuss | >

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.