Collins Astronomy

With June bringing the summer solstice, the nights are gradually beginning to lengthen again. The skies remain bright, but a tapestry of gorgeous constellations shines through, offering stories and starlight from the distant past. Here are some of the best and most beautiful constellations to look out for this summer.

The warm, inviting nights of summer may not be the darkest, but they’re no less full of wonderful sights to see in the night sky. Here’s your guide to some of the astronomical highlights of the coming season.

The month of June is bringing with it a Supermoon. This is a celestial event that occurs when the Full Moon is at perigee, meaning that it is at a point of its orbit that brings it closer to the Earth. This makes it appear brighter and larger than average.

In the night between May 15 and May 16, a total lunar eclipse will be visible from a wide area of the world. This event will be visible from Europe, North and South America, Africa and parts of Asia. In the UK, we will be able to see the whole of the total phase, from the first contact with the Earth’s penumbra to the full eclipse, between 2:32am and 4:29am. When the Moon leaves the umbra, it will be below the horizon.

The Night Sky Almanac: A Stargazers Guide to 2022 is not only a beautiful book, but its unusual because it covers what you can see from anywhere in the world. This sets it aside from most other sky guides. 

Seeing the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) is high on many people’s bucket list, both astronomers and non-astronomers alike. Northern Lights: The Definitive Guide to Auroras by Tom Kerss is a comprehensive book that loots at all aspects of the aurora.