Rising, transit and setting times and coming events.
Times are UT. Select nearest latitude to you and adjust to local time according to your longitude; add [subtract] 4 minutes to the given times for each degree of longitude west [east] of 0°.
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June Notes
Planets
Mercury: Visible in the north-western twilight for first two weeks, setting 2 hours after the sun on June 1. Venus: Bright on the NW horizon but low down, setting 1½ hours after the sun all month.
Mars: Very hard to locate in the morning twilight, will be easier in July. Jupiter: Conjunction behind the sun on June 19. Saturn: In the southern sky on Libra/Virgo border, fading to mag. 0.5 and setting 4½hours after sunset at end of June.
Venus is in the evening sky for several months now but will never be far above the western horizon, even at greatest elongation in November. It's brightness however makes it easy to see with an unobstructed view. For the whole of June Mercury is in the evening twilight with Venus. Having passed Venus in late May Mercury reaches greatest elongation on the 12th. It will pass Venus again as it moves towards the sun and disappears into the brightness by the month's end. Saturn meanwhile continues to share the south with Spica in Virgo.
Midnight Twilight
The summer solstice means that observation of neighbouring stars is pushed into late night and the early hours; the further north you go the lighter the nights will be. There is still plenty to see, just less time to see it. Low in the south is the red giant Antares in Scorpius, marking approximately the centre of our galaxy the Milky Way but never well seen from here. Lower on the northern horizon you can see Capella which a few months ago was overhead in the early spring evenings. The Summer Triangle marked by Vega, Deneb and Altair (in Lyra, Cygnus and Aquilla respectively) is rising in the east while Ursa Major and Bootes with the orange giant star Arcturus are in the west. The Milky Way gets higher as the night progresses, a good pair of binoculars will bring out the countless faint stars and nebulae.
Noctilucent Clouds
Noctilucent (‘night shining’) clouds can be seen in the late twilight in the months round the northern summer solstice. They are high (up to 100 km) tenuous clouds that can only be seen when the sun has set but still shines at these altitudes. Look in the northern sky at least an hour after sunset/before sunrise for thin, wispy bluish or white cloud formations. See featured video above.