Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

This is Ephemeris’ 51st anniversary program, and starting orbit 52 for Monday, June 1st. Today the Sun will be up for 15 hours and 21 minutes, setting at 9:21, and it will rise tomorrow at 5:59. The Moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 11:11 this evening.

Let’s preview June skies. There will be a lot of sun in June and very little night. The daylight hours will increase a bit from 15 hours and 21 minutes Today to 15 hours and 34 minutes on the 21st, retreating back to 15 hours 31 minutes at month’s end. The altitude of the Sun above the southern horizon at local noon will hover around 68 to 69 degrees. Local noon, when the Sun is actually due south, will occur at about 1:43 PM Summer begins on the 21st at 4:25 am, when the Sun reaches its farthest north. The actual amount of nighttime will be quite short, mostly due to the length of daylight, but also because twilight lasts much longer than average because the Sun sets at a shallow angle. On the 21st, there’s theoretically only 3 ½ hours of total darkness if the Moon wasn’t up.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

June Evening Star Chart

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 11 PM EDT in the evening and 4 AM. on the 15th.on the morning chart. These are the chart times. Note that Interlochen/Traverse City is located approximately 45 minutes behind our time meridian, West 75° longitude. (An hour 45 minutes behind our daylight saving time meridian during EDT). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere you may have to set it to 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than the current time.
Note, the chart times of 11 PM and 4 AM are for the 15th & 16th. For each week before the 15th, add ½ hour (28 minutes if you’re picky). For each week after the 15th, subtract ½ hour, or 28 minutes. The planet positions are updated each Wednesday on this blog. For planet positions on dates other than the 15th, check the Wednesday planet posts on this blog for weekly positions.

June Morning Star Chart

Orbits of the naked-eye planets for seven 5-day intervals starting June 1, 2026.

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

Jun  1  Mo            Venus: 35° E
     1  Mo  12:32 AM  Moon Apogee: 406400 km
     1  Mo  12:59 PM  Moon South Dec.: 28° S
     7  Su   2:19 AM  Moon Ascending Node
     7  Su  12:15 PM  Venus-Pollux: 4.7° S
     8  Mo   6:00 AM  Last Quarter
     9  Tu   4:11 PM  Venus-Jupiter: 1.6° N
    13  Sa   9:15 AM  Moon-Pleiades: 0.9° S
    14  Su   7:18 PM  Moon Perigee: 357200 km
    14  Su  10:54 PM  New Moon
    15  Mo   1:29 AM  Moon North Dec.: 28° N
    15  Mo   3:59 PM  Mercury Elongation: 24.5° E
    16  Tu   3:32 PM  Moon-Mercury: 2.6° S
    17  We   2:54 AM  Moon-Jupiter: 2.5° S
    17  We   4:21 PM  Moon-Venus: 0.3° S
    17  We   7:40 PM  Moon-Beehive: 0.6° S
    18  Th  10:59 AM  Mercury-Pollux: 6.4° S
    19  Fr  10:31 AM  Moon-Regulus: 0.3° N
    19  Fr  11:44 AM  Venus-Beehive: 0.4° N
    19  Fr   1:57 PM  Moon Descending Node
    21  Su   4:25 AM  Summer Solstice
    21  Su   5:55 PM  First Quarter
    23  Tu   4:11 PM  Moon-Spica: 2.3° N
    25  Th   7:54 AM  Mercury-Jupiter: 3.8° N
    27  Sa  10:32 AM  Moon-Antares: 0.5° N
    28  Su   3:11 AM  Moon Apogee: 406300 km
    28  Su   2:30 PM  Mars-Pleiades: 4.4° S
    28  Su   6:06 PM  Moon South Dec.: 28° S
    29  Mo   7:57 PM  Full Moon
Jul  1  We            Venus: 41.1° E

Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA’s GSFC),
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html.

Sun and Moon Rising and Setting Events

LU              Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
June, 2026    Local time zone: EDT
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Mon  1| 06:00a  09:21p  15:21 | 10:44p  04:37a |      Rise 11:11p   97%|
|Tue  2| 05:59a  09:22p  15:22 | 10:45p  04:36a |      Rise 11:54p   94%|
|Wed  3| 05:59a  09:23p  15:23 | 10:46p  04:35a |      Rise 12:29a   88%|
|Thu  4| 05:58a  09:23p  15:24 | 10:47p  04:35a |      Rise 12:57a   82%|
|Fri  5| 05:58a  09:24p  15:26 | 10:48p  04:34a |      Rise 01:21a   74%|
|Sat  6| 05:58a  09:25p  15:27 | 10:49p  04:33a |      Rise 01:41a   64%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  7| 05:57a  09:25p  15:28 | 10:50p  04:33a |      Rise 02:00a   54%|
|Mon  8| 05:57a  09:26p  15:29 | 10:51p  04:32a |L Qtr Rise 02:18a   44%|
|Tue  9| 05:57a  09:27p  15:29 | 10:52p  04:32a |      Rise 02:38a   33%|
|Wed 10| 05:57a  09:27p  15:30 | 10:53p  04:31a |      Rise 03:00a   23%|
|Thu 11| 05:56a  09:28p  15:31 | 10:53p  04:31a |      Rise 03:28a   14%|
|Fri 12| 05:56a  09:28p  15:32 | 10:54p  04:31a |      Rise 04:04a    7%|
|Sat 13| 05:56a  09:29p  15:32 | 10:55p  04:30a |      Rise 04:52a    2%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 14| 05:56a  09:29p  15:33 | 10:55p  04:30a |New   Set  09:44p    0%|
|Mon 15| 05:56a  09:30p  15:33 | 10:56p  04:30a |      Set  10:47p    1%|
|Tue 16| 05:56a  09:30p  15:34 | 10:56p  04:30a |      Set  11:34p    5%|
|Wed 17| 05:56a  09:31p  15:34 | 10:57p  04:30a |      Set  12:09a   12%|
|Thu 18| 05:56a  09:31p  15:34 | 10:57p  04:30a |      Set  12:36a   20%|
|Fri 19| 05:56a  09:31p  15:34 | 10:57p  04:30a |      Set  12:58a   30%|
|Sat 20| 05:57a  09:31p  15:34 | 10:58p  04:30a |      Set  01:17a   40%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 21| 05:57a  09:32p  15:34 | 10:58p  04:30a |F Qtr Set  01:35a   51%|
|Mon 22| 05:57a  09:32p  15:34 | 10:58p  04:31a |      Set  01:53a   61%|
|Tue 23| 05:57a  09:32p  15:34 | 10:58p  04:31a |      Set  02:13a   70%|
|Wed 24| 05:58a  09:32p  15:34 | 10:58p  04:31a |      Set  02:36a   79%|
|Thu 25| 05:58a  09:32p  15:34 | 10:58p  04:32a |      Set  03:03a   86%|
|Fri 26| 05:58a  09:32p  15:33 | 10:58p  04:32a |      Set  03:37a   92%|
|Sat 27| 05:59a  09:32p  15:33 | 10:58p  04:33a |      Set  04:19a   96%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 28| 05:59a  09:32p  15:32 | 10:58p  04:33a |      Set  05:10a   99%|
|Mon 29| 06:00a  09:32p  15:32 | 10:58p  04:34a |Full  Rise 09:53p  100%|
|Tue 30| 06:00a  09:32p  15:31 | 10:57p  04:34a |      Rise 10:31p   99%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunset and sunrise

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