2025, June 11: Sky Watch-See Four Planets and Bright Moon

June 11, 2025: Four planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Saturn – are visible during the nighttime hours. The bright Strawberry Moon is visible nearly all night.

2022, June 18, Four of the five morning planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter.
Photo Caption – 2022, June 18: Four of the five morning planets – Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter.

by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 5:15 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 8:26 p.m. CDT.  Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

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Four planets are visible during nighttime hours.  Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Saturn can be seen.

Earliest sunrise occurs through the 19th. Today, daylight lasts 15 hours, 11 minutes at Chicago’s latitude.

Bright Morning Moon

Bright morning moon, June 11, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, June 11: The bright Full Strawberry Moon is in the southwest before sunrise.

This morning the bright Strawberry Moon, this moon’s Full phase, is low in the southwest during morning twilight.  The moon was opposite the sun at 2:44 a.m. Central Time.

Venus and Saturn

Venus, Saturn, June 11, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, June 11: Venus and Saturn are in the eastern sky before sunrise.

Farther eastward, brilliant Venus is nearly 15° above the east horizon.  This morning, the planet crosses the Aries/Cetus border and appears nearly 13° to the lower right of Hamal, Aries’ brightest star.  Venus passes the star in a wide conjunction in three mornings.

Saturn, dimmer than average, is nearly 30° above the southeast horizon and almost 35° to the upper right of the Morning Star.  Through their telescopes, sky watchers see the rings nearly from the edge, like looking at a dinner plate from the side.  In this orientation, the icy particles reflect a considerable amount of sunlight away from Earth, making the planet appear dimmer.

Neptune is in Saturn’s region, but the sky is too bright to see the solar system’s most distant planet. It is visible later in the summer earlier in the morning when the sky is darker.

Jupiter is hiding in bright evening twilight, heading toward its solar conjunction on the 24th. 

Mercury

Mercury, June 11, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, June 11: During bright twilight, Mercury is low in the west-northwest. Use a binocular to see it.

Mercury is emerging from bright evening twilight.  It is bright as it leaves superior conjunction on the sun’s far side.  Unlike Venus, Mercury is brighter when it has a gibbous phase and far from Earth, though Venus is brightest when it displays a crescent and it is relatively nearby.

At 45 minutes after nightfall, when the sky is fairly bright, Mercury is less than 5° up in the west-northwest.  Use a binocular to see it.

Mars Nears Regulus

Mars, June 11, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, June 11: Mars approaches Regulus in the western sky during evening twilight.

Fifteen minutes later, find Mars one-third of the way from the horizon to overhead.  It is 3.2° to the lower right of Regulus, Leo’s brightest star. 

Mars approaches, passes and moves away from Regulus, June 11-23, 2025
Chart Caption – Mars approaches, passes and moves away from Regulus, June 11-23, 2025

A Mars-Regulus conjunction occurs on the 17th, when the gap between them is 0.8°.  Watch Mars close in each evening.

Moon after Sunset

Evening Moon, June 11, 2025
Chart Caption – 2025, June 11: Two hours after sundown, the bright moon is in the southeast.

Two hours after sunset, the bright Strawberry moon, 99% illuminated, is less than 10° up in the southeast and over 20° to Antares’ lower left.  During the night the lunar orb is farther westward, appearing in the southwest during morning twilight.

Look for the four bright planets.

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