Astrophotography in June 2025: what to shoot in the night sky this month
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
Deep-sky astrophotographers are in for a treat this month, with some of the most beautiful nebulae — and a globular cluster — at their best, though with the solstice on 20 June, astronomical darkness will be hard to find. However, such a thing is hardly necessary for a trio of conjunctions this month involving the crescent moon, Mars, the Pleiades, and Regulus, the 'Heart of the Lion.'
Here's everything you need to know about astrophotography in June 2025.
This is the perfect night for deep-sky astrophotographers to image one of the most beautiful objects in the summer night sky. M13 is the prime example of a globular cluster, a dense ball of hundreds of thousands of ancient stars almost as old as the universe itself that orbits in the halo of the Milky Way. It's called the Hercules Cluster because it's found in the constellation Hercules, which is high overhead at midnight this month, so in the darkest part of the night sky as seen from the Northern Hemisphere. M13 is about 20,000 light years from the solar system — and a fabulous target for telescopes using CCD cameras and smart telescopes like the Unistellar eVscope 2 and Seestar S50.
Read: Astrophotography: How-to guides, tips and videos
Though officially full on Wednesday, 11 June, moonrise where you live on Tuesday, 10 June is when to be out to catch the most southerly-rising full moon in 2025. This full 'Strawberry Moon' is occurring during a major lunar standstill, a once-in-18.6-years event, meaning it will rise much farther to the southeast than usual. Use apps like PhotoPills and The Photographer's Ephemeris to plan a shot of it rising behind an unusual landmark.
Read: How to photograph the full moon
Although both of these targets can just be seen with the naked eye from Bortle 1 or dark skies, the larger and brighter Lagoon Nebula (M8) and the smaller Trifid Nebula (M20) in Sagittarius are typically seen only in deep-sky astrophotography images. June is a wonderful time to explore Sagittarius, which is rich in nebulae and star fields, though the more southerly you are, the better view you'll get (tip: wonderful views of Sagittarius are possible from Malaga in Spain and Florida in the U.S., two common places for family vacations).
Read: The best light pollution filters
Here comes a colorful close encounter in the west after dark. The red planet Mars and blue-white star Regulus in the constellation Leo will appear just 0.7 degrees apart while shining with almost identical brightness. It's a rare chance to take an image showing contrasting colors — and an alternative to the seasonal cliche of the Albireo double star in the Cygnus constellation in the Summer Triangle (which is also high in the sky in June).
Read: The best cameras for astrophotography
The darkest night skies of each month are always those between the last quarter moon and a few nights after the new moon, when there's little moonlight. That's true this month, with the last quarter moon on 18 June signaling the return of moon-free evenings. However, there's a huge spanner in the works in June's astrophotography window for anyone who lives at northerly latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere — the solstice. It means astronomical darkness will be in short supply and, indeed, impossible at latitudes above 50 degrees north.
Read: The best star tracker camera mounts
If there was ever a reason to rise early, it's this. A slender 6%-lit crescent moon will appear just half a degree from the Pleiades' open cluster of stars (also called M45 and the 'Seven Sisters') in the eastern sky this morning. The duo will rise at about 3:30 a.m. local time and be visible in twilight, and until dawn breaks. Venus will shine nearby. Use a DSLR or mirrorless camera with a telephoto lens (at least 100mm) on a tripod and keep exposures under one second to avoid blur, or bracket exposures to capture both the bright crescent and M45's fainter stars.
Read: When to photograph the moon
See the moon with a cherry on top tonight, when a quarter-lit crescent moon will shine in the west after sunset with Mars just a fifth of a degree above it. From parts of the Pacific and northern South America, the moon will briefly occult Mars. From twilight onwards, use a 200mm (minimum) telephoto lens on a tripod and use short exposures (1/100sec or faster) to capture the sharp crescent and Mars as a point of light.
Read: Best deep-space telescopes
Late June is the peak time of the year to see noctilucent clouds (NLCs) from mid-northern latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. These shimmering, silvery-blue wispy clouds tend to appear in the northwest as summer nights darken, glowing long after the sun has set (principally because the sun doesn't get that far beneath the horizon at this time of year), so watch from 30-90 minutes after sunset.
Formed from ice crystals clinging to meteor dust about 50 miles (80km) up, they sometimes get the nickname 'space clouds' because they sit just beneath the Kármán line, Earth's boundary with space. Camera settings will be similar to any twilight-night photography, which is to say, use a wide aperture (say, f1.8-2.8 or whatever your DSLR or mirrorless camera's wide-angle lens can manage) and experiment with ISO and exposure. Start with ISO 400–800 and expose for one to six seconds.
Read more:
• Best equatorial mounts
• Best deep-space telescopes
• The best light pollution filters
• The best CCD cameras for astrophotography
• The best spotting scopes
• The best binoculars
• The best microscopes
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Meet Silicon Valley's Arms Dealer Will Somerindyke
F or years, Will Somerindyke sold weapons of war around the world: artillery shells to Ukraine, grenades to U.S.-backed rebels in Syria. With relationships with dozens of top military buyers, he quickly turned his company Regulus Global into one of America's major international arms dealers. Now, as Silicon Valley investors swarm to back multi-billion dollar defense startups with increasing fervor, Somerindyke is looking to make the jump from munitions middleman to manufacturer. He's been quietly working on Union, a new venture-backed startup he claims will modernize ammunition factories with autonomous robotics and precision machining. 'I've been through a lot in 18 years in this space,' Somerindyke told Forbes . 'If Union does its job correctly, we will be building millions of square feet of facilities with the ability to make a wide range of defense products.' Union, which Somerindyke leads as CEO, appears to have made a solid start. In April it secured a massive $50 million seed funding round led by Bravo Victor Venture Capital, or BVVC. Other investors include Silent Ventures, IronGate, and RKKVC, a Poland-based single-family office. It plans to open its first artillery shell factory in Texas next month. And it recently secured a contract to sell those shells, which, if fulfilled, could bring in up to $225 million, according to Somerindyke. The customer behind that first contract is Regulus, where Somerindyke remains chairman and majority owner — putting him on both sides of the company-client relationship (Regulus is also an investor in Union). Somerindyke said that Union has 'put all the parameters in place to avoid conflict of interest,' adding: 'This is a great partnership between Regulus and Union because we have similar goals and needs…Regulus just happens to be the first customer.' (Somerindyke declined to say who the intended customer is for the shells Regulus plans to purchase from Union). In addition, Joe Musselman, BVVC's managing partner, is incubating Union out of the venture fund, and is serving as Union's chairman and as an investor. He said his limited partners were untroubled by Union's CEO maintaining a management role at its largest customer. 'You have to find people that are already working on a problem set,' Musselman said. 'And that's something that Will has been doing for a long time.' Will Somerindyke, left, and Joe Musselman, right, plan to open Union's first factory this month. Union Union is now in talks to raise a series A funding round, which, Musselman claims, has 'hundreds of millions' of dollars committed from investors. Jackson Moses, managing partner of Silent Ventures, backed Union's seed funding round because he sees the company as 'critical national infrastructure.' He intends to 'meaningfully' invest in the upcoming series A. 'Will and Joe are uniquely qualified to successfully execute Union's mission,' he said. The idea for Union was to solve munitions shortages across the West — a reality Somerindyke was intimately familiar with sourcing artillery shells for Ukraine through Regulus. The U.S. Army, for example, which pays companies like General Dynamics to make its 155mm shells, has invested $5 billion in opening new manufacturing facilities to make more than 100,000 shells a month, though it is currently said to be 'months' behind that goal. Got a tip? Contact David Jeans at djeans@ or 347-559-5443 on Signal. But instead of approaching the problem with old-school manufacturing, Somerindyke and Musselman, who met more than a decade ago through a program for veterans, saw an opportunity to modernize weapons manufacturing, are using Silicon Valley software talent to implement autonomous systems. Since incorporating in October, Union has hired a suite of engineers from Tesla, SpaceX and Anduril. It was an opportune time for Somerindyke, whose company Regulus was embroiled in a dispute over a $1.7 billion contract to sell artillery shells to the Ukrainian government, the Financial Times previously reported. The dispute is currently in arbitration in a London court; 'Regulus feels more than comfortable with its case and what our contractual obligations are,' Somerindyke said. (He has a history of legal disputes with business partners, per the FT). In January, the same month he became CEO of Union, Somerindyke stepped down as CEO at Regulus, but retained his role as chairman. Musselman has touted recent momentum to 'reindustrialize' America and bring manufacturing back to the U.S. as necessary to combatting China's manufacturing superiority. Other companies have joined the effort, including Hadrian, which does autonomous manufacturing, and Re:Build, a Massachusetts-based company that has been acquiring mom-and-pop factories and modernizing them; both could compete with Union's entry into the market. Mussleman has also invested in other defense companies; after starting BVVC in 2023, he has written checks into drone company Firestorm and autonomous submarine startup Vatn Systems. At the Texas facility, set to open this month, Union hopes to produce more than 300,000 shells next year, according to a company pitch deck shared with seed investors in January. By 2030, Union has told its investors, it plans to produce nine million shells a year, which it hopes will generate $3.5 billion in revenue. Those are lofty figures. But Musselman sees the ongoing turbulence in the world — conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East — as proof of Union's thesis. 'We are running at a deficit of stockpiles or anything that goes boom around the world,' he said. 'And that's going to be a leverage point for our adversaries.' More from Forbes Forbes How A Grisly Injury Threw A $5 Billion Drone Startup Off Course By David Jeans Forbes Meta Is Recruiting Former Pentagon Officials As It Ramps Up Military Ambitions By David Jeans Forbes Silicon Valley's Military Drone Companies Have A Serious 'Made In China' Problem By David Jeans Forbes Starlink's Numbers Could Bring SpaceX's Valuation Crashing Down By Jeremy Bogaisky
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Perseids, A Full ‘Buck Moon' And A Small Sun: The Sky In July 2025
The Perseid meteor shower begins this month. Each month, I pick out North America's celestial highlights for the week ahead (which also apply to mid-northern latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere). Check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, astronomy, eclipses and more. The perfect month to get out and look up in the Northern Hemisphere, July 2025 has a lot to offer. From spectacular views of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn to a full 'buck moon' and from a rare and wonderful moon-Pleiades conjunction to no fewer than three meteor showers, here's everything else you need to know about stargazing and the night sky in July 2025: Use eclipse glasses to safely look at the "aphelion sun." (Photo by MARCO DE SWART/ANP/AFP via Getty ... More Images) 1. Earth At Aphelion When: Anytime on Thursday, July 3, 2025. Where: the sun (you must use solar eclipse glasses). Earth is today at aphelion — it's farthest from the sun in the year. It happens because Earth orbits the sun in a slightly elliptical orbit. At aphelion, Earth is 94.5 million miles (152 million kilometers) away from the sun, while in six months' time, it will be at perihelion, 91.4 million miles (147 million kilometers) from the sun. That's only about a three percent difference, but the sun today will look slightly smaller in the sky. If you have any leftover solar eclipse glasses, take a look. 2. Mars And Mercury When: After sunset on Friday, July 4, 2025. Where: west. Look west 45 minutes after sunset, and you'll see Mars and Regulus above the western horizon. Mentally draw a line between them and carry on to the horizon, and you may see tiny Mercury — the "Swift Planet" — making a rare appearance. Saturday, July 5: Venus And The Pleiades 3. Venus And The Pleiades When: before sunrise on Saturday, July 5, 2025. Where: northeast. If you can rise before the sun, look to the northeast for the sumptuous sight of bright Venus beneath the Pleiades, an open star cluster that looks beautiful to the naked eye and through binoculars. 4. Venus Highest When: before sunrise on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. Where: east-northeast. Venus reaches its highest point in the morning sky today during its current apparition as the bright 'Morning Star." Look to the east-northeast about 30 minutes before sunrise, and there'll be no mistaking the bright planet about 25 degrees above the horizon. 5. Full 'Buck Moon' Rises When: moonrise where you are on Thursday, July 10, 2025. Where: eastern horizon. The first full moon of summer, July's buck moon, rises on the evening of July 10. Though it technically reaches full phase at 4:38 p.m. EDT, catch it at moonrise for the best views as a huge, orange orb climbs the eastern sky. This full moon will stay low due to its proximity to the summer solstice. 6. Perseid Meteor Shower Begins When: after midnight from July 17, 2025. Where: northeast. While the famed Perseids peak in August, their first streaks appear around July 17. That night also features a last-quarter moon, meaning darker skies to catch a few early Perseid fireballs . Tuesday, July 15: The Moon Meets Saturn 7. Moon Meets Saturn When: around midnight on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Where: east. Late tonight, a 70%-illuminated waning gibbous moon will rise in the east alongside Saturn. By midnight, look about halfway up the southeastern sky to see them paired just two degrees apart. Saturn will glow a steady yellowish light above the moon. 8. Moon Meets The Pleiades When: 45 minutes before sunrise on Sunday, July 20, 2025. Where: east-northeast. A delicate 24%-lit crescent moon will glide alongside the dazzling Pleiades open cluster (also known as the Seven Sisters). Earthshine — sunlight reflected off Earth's oceans, ice caps and clouds — will give the moon's darkened portion a ghostly glow. Sunday, July 20: Moon And The Pleiades 9. Crescent Moon And Mars When: 45 minutes after sunset on Sunday, July 27, 2025. Where: west. With the crescent moon now 11% lit, it will be higher in the western sky after sunset than it was last night. Just to its upper left will shine Mars, past its best but still unmistakable. The mostly unlit face of the moon will be faintly illuminated by Earthshine, the ghostly glow on the moon's night side. 10. Meteor Showers Peak When: early hours of Tuesday, July 29. 2025. Where: all-sky. Two overlapping meteor showers — the Delta Aquariids and the Alpha Capricornids — both reach their peak tonight. The Delta Aquariids may produce up to 20 meteors per hour, while the Alpha Capricornids can add another 5 to 10. For exact timings, use a sunrise and sunset calculator for where you are, Stellarium Web for a sky chart and Night Sky Tonight: Visible Planets at Your Location for positions and rise/set times for planets. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Astronomers see the 1st stars dispel darkness 13 billion years ago at 'Cosmic Dawn'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers have used ground-based telescopes for the first time to peer back 13 billion years in time to observe the universe when the first stars first lifted the cosmic darkness. This period, around 800 million years after the Big Bang, is known as "Cosmic Dawn," and it remains one of the most mysterious and important periods in the evolution of the universe. This new glimpse of Cosmic Dawn comes courtesy of the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS), an array of telescopes located high in the Atacama Desert region of Northern Chile. The primary mission of CLASS is to observe the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), a cosmic fossil left over from an event just after the Big Bang. "People thought this couldn't be done from the ground. Astronomy is a technology-limited field, and microwave signals from the Cosmic Dawn are famously difficult to measure," team leader and Johns Hopkins professor of physics and astronomy, Tobias Marriage, said in a statement. "Ground-based observations face additional challenges compared to space. Overcoming those obstacles makes this measurement a significant achievement." Prior to around 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the infant universe would have seemed like a pretty dull place, visually at least. That is because during this period, light was unable to travel freely due to the fact that photons were endlessly scattered by free electrons. This situation changed when the universe had expanded and cooled enough to allow electrons to bond with protons and create the first neutral atoms of hydrogen. Suddenly, photons were free to travel unimpeded through the cosmos as the universe instantly went from transparent to opaque. This "first light" is seen today as the CMB. When the first stars formed, their intense radiation ripped electrons from neutral hydrogen once again, an event called "reionization," turning the universe dark again during an epoch known as the "Cosmic Dark Ages." The signal from Cosmic Dawn hunted by CLASS comes from the fingerprint of the universe's first stars within the CMB. This comes in the form of polarized microwave light around a million times fainter than standard cosmic microwaves. As you may imagine, after travelling to us for 13 billion years and more, the light from Cosmic Dawn is extremely faint. Trying to detect this polarized microwave light from Earth is extremely difficult because it is drowned out by natural events such as atmospheric changes and temperature fluctuations, as well as being obscured by human-made signals like radio waves, radar and satellite signals. Thus, this cosmic radiation is usually only hunted from space by satellites like NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and the European Space Agency's Planck space telescope. That was until CLASS. The team behind this new research compared data from CLASS with observations from Planck and WMAP. This allowed them to identify sources of interference and hone in on a signal from polarized microwave light in the CMB. Polarization describes what happens when waves are oriented in the same direction. This can happen when light hits an object and scatters off it. "When light hits the hood of your car and you see a glare, that's polarization. To see clearly, you can put on polarized glasses to take away glare," said team member Yunyang Li, who was a PhD student at Johns Hopkins and then a fellow at the University of Chicago while this research was being conducted. "Using the new common signal, we can determine how much of what we're seeing is cosmic glare from light bouncing off the hood of the Cosmic Dawn, so to speak." What this team specifically aims to measure with CLASS is the probability of a photon from the CMB encountering an electron ripped free of neutral hydrogen by the universe's first stars and being scattered. Doing this should help scientists better define signals from the CMB and the initial glow of the Big Bang, thus enabling them to paint a clear picture of the infant cosmos. "Measuring this reionization signal more precisely is an important frontier of cosmic microwave background research," WMAP space mission team leader Charles Bennett said. "For us, the universe is like a physics lab. Better measurements of the universe help to refine our understanding of dark matter and neutrinos, abundant but elusive particles that fill the universe. "By analyzing additional CLASS data going forward, we hope to reach the highest possible precision that's achievable." Related Stories: — How dark energy could relieve 'Hubble tension' and galaxy headaches — Hubble trouble or Superbubble? Astronomers need to escape the 'supervoid' to solve cosmology crisis — 'Our understanding of the universe may be incomplete': James Webb Space Telescope data suggests we need a 'new cosmic feature' to explain it all This new research is built upon earlier work that saw CLASS map 75% of the night sky over Earth as it makes precise measurements of the polarization of the CMB. "No other ground-based experiment can do what CLASS is doing," said Nigel Sharp, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Astronomical Sciences, supporter of CLASS since 2010. "The CLASS team has greatly improved measurement of the cosmic microwave polarization signal, and this impressive leap forward is a testament to the scientific value produced by NSF's long-term support."The team's research was published on Wednesday (June 2) in The Astrophysical Journal.
