By Richard Hall
All times are adjusted for daylight saving
The chart shows the heliocentric orbital positions of the planets for June 1st 2010. The planets are orbiting in an anti-clockwise direction and smaller images show the positions of the inner planets for June 15th. The orbits of the inner planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, are to scale. Planets beyond Mars are placed in shells. These are Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Eris. A line drawn from the Earth through the Sun reveals the constellation of the Zodiac that the Sun is moving through. Because the Earth rotates in an anti-clockwise direction planets to the right of this line rise after midnight and are therefore morning stars. Those to the left are evening stars.
| MERCURY - is a morning star in early June, rising two hours before the Sun at the beginning of the month. At this time its magnitude will be +0.1 and in a telescope it will look like a tiny first-quarter moon, phase 50%, 7.3” in diameter. The planet is moving back towards the Sun and will be lost from view in the dawn twilight towards the end of the month. It reaches superior conjunction, the far side of the sun, on the 28th. |  | VENUS - is the brilliant star, magnitude -4.0 that can be seen in the north-eastern evening twilight. The planet sets after twilight has ended at 7:15 pm at the beginning of the month, at 8:10pm by the month’s end. In a telescope it will look like a small gibbous moon (phase 76%), 14” in diameter. |  | MARS - is the bright reddish evening star, magnitude +1.2, that can be seen slowly moving eastward through the constellation of Leo. On June 6th it will be 0.9 degree north of Regulus. In a telescope it will show a gibbous phase of 90%, 5.6 arc seconds in diameter. | | | | 
| JUPITER - is a morning star in the constellation of Pisces rising at 1:35am at the beginning of June, 11:55pm by the month’s end. Over June the giant planet’s magnitude rises from -2.3 to -2.5 and its telescopic diameter increases from 35” to 39”. |  |
SATURN - is an evening star in Virgo and doesn’t set until after midnight until the end of the month. Saturn’s magnitude is +1.1, and the telescopic diameter of its orb 17.6”.
|  | URANUS - is a morning star in Pisces, rising at 2:45am at the beginning of the month, 11:50pm by the month’s end. Its magnitude is +5.9 and in a telescope it will be seen as a small greenish disk 3.5” in diameter.
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NEPTUNE - is a evening star in Aquarius rising at 11pm at the beginning of June, 9pm by the month’s end. Its magnitude is +7.9 and in a telescope it will be seen as a tiny bluish disk 2.3” in diameter.
|  | PLUTO - reaches opposition on June 25th when its distance will be 30.86 A.U. On this date its coordinates will be 18h 16m 40.4s, -18o 15’ 15.7”. At magnitude +14.0 it is visible only in large telescopes.
| Dwarf Planets The dwarf planets Ceres and Pluto both reach opposition in June in the constellation of Sagittarius.
CERES reaches opposition on the 18th when its distance from the Earth will be 1.82 A.U. Ceres will be easily visible in binoculars.
R.A. Dec Magnitude
June 01 18h 05m 13s -24o 24’ 46” 7.5
June 11 17h 56m 17s -25o 00’ 43” 7.3
June 18 17h 49m 28s -25o 24’ 11” 7.0
June 21 17h 46m 31s -25o 33’ 37” 7.1
July 01 17h 36m 58s -26o 01’ 49” 7.4
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