Stargazing under the Southern skies

Did you know…?

1. June is a great month for planet viewing! Three planets – Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – will be visible this month. Jupiter and Saturn will rise in the early evening, followed by Mars around midnight.
2. Scorpius is a great constellation to look for during the month of June. It is a constellation that actually looks like a scorpion. A bright red star called Antares is referred to as the heart of the scorpion because of its position and colour within the constellation.
3. People across the world see different patterns or figures when looking at the stars that make up the Southern Cross. To some Maori cultures the stars look like an anchor, to some Indigenous Australians the stars look like a possum, and to some African cultures the stars look like multiple giraffes.
4. Have you ever looked up and seen that fuzzy white band across our night sky? It is called the Milky Way. The Milky Way is our Galaxy, and it contains 100400 billion stars; our Sun is just one of those.
5. It’s the Winter Solstice on the 20th/21st of June! That’s the day of the year that has the shortest amount of daylight, and longest amount of night-time in a 24 hour day.

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