The night sky in June 2027
Moon phases, meteor showers, planets and the best nights to look up from the UK in June 2027. Times are UK clock time (BST) for central England.
Best nights to watch
- Moon-free dark skies on the nights from 1 to 7 June: the best nights this month for faint shooting stars, the Milky Way and deep-sky objects.
- Moon-free dark skies on the night of 30 June–1 July: the best nights this month for faint shooting stars, the Milky Way and deep-sky objects.
Around midsummer the Sun never sinks far enough below the horizon for a fully dark sky in central England. On every night this month, "dark" here means the deepest twilight of the night.
The Moon
Each day shows the Moon's shape in the evening. Shaded days start the best Moon-free dark nights.
Meteor showers
No major shower peaks this month.
Smaller showers peaking this month: June Epsilon Ophiuchids (around 23 June, in active years, a few an hour at best).
On any dark night you can also see a few sporadic meteors an hour, which belong to no shower. Rates are usually higher after midnight, when your side of Earth faces the direction it is travelling.
Planets
For the middle of the month. Magnitude measures brightness: the lower the number, the brighter, and anything brighter than about 2 is easy to see from a town.
- Mercury
- Mercury is too close to the Sun to see this month.
- Venus
- Venus is too close to the Sun to see this month.
- Mars
- In the evening sky after sunset, low in the south-west, until about 00:30. Brightness: magnitude 1.0.
- Jupiter
- In the evening sky after sunset, low in the west, until about 23:50. Brightness: magnitude −1.6.
- Saturn
- In the morning sky before dawn, low in the east, from about 03:00 until the sky gets too bright. Brightness: magnitude 1.1.
Dates for your diary
- Thursday 10 June, evening: The Moon near Mars. The half-lit Moon (44 per cent lit) is about 4° from Mars at about 22:20. A pairing like this is a good way to find a planet for the first time.
June solstice: Monday 21 June at 15:12 BST. The longest day in the UK and the shortest night. In the middle of Britain the sky never gets fully dark around this date.
Find a safe spot away from street lights, wrap up warmly and lie back so you can see a wide sweep of sky. Give your eyes 20 minutes to adjust and keep phone screens dim. No telescope is needed for meteors. Children should always watch with an adult. Never look at the Sun.
Read about every meteor shower, what a radiant and the zenithal hourly rate mean, and how moonlight hides faint meteors. Children can start with how to watch for shooting stars.