{"id":495741,"date":"2026-06-12T08:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/495741\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T08:50:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T08:50:08","slug":"the-sky-today-on-friday-june-12-the-moon-meets-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/495741\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on Friday, June 12: The Moon meets Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tEarth\u2019s satellite shines together with the Red Planet in the constellation Aries today, visible in the morning sky before dawn.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1291\" height=\"882\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Moon-Mars-06122026.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"A simulated predawn sky looking east on June 12, 2026, one hour before sunrise. A thin crescent Moon appears in the center, with the reddish dot of Mars below it. The Pleiades star cluster is visible to the lower left, and the stars Hamal and Sheratan of Aries are seen at upper right.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA delicate waning crescent Moon lies near Mars in the predawn sky on June 12. Credit: Stellarium\/USGS\/Celestia\/Clementine\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-this-week-from-june-5-to-12-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">June 11: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/observing\/the-sky-today-thursday-june-11-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Point to the Polarissima Cluster<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019re interested in the early-morning sky today as the waning crescent Moon joins up with Mars in Aries. Now just 11% lit, the Moon sits almost directly above the Red Planet as they rise. Above both are the two bright stars of the Ram, Hamal and Sheratan. You may also be able to spot the Pleiades star cluster (M45) in Taurus, which lies to the lower left of Mars. These stars will quickly disappear as twilight grows, but you should be able to capture them early on through binoculars or even a telescope\u2019s finder scope. This young cluster of stars sprawls across more than 100\u2019 of sky, making it impossible to capture all its stars with high magnification.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And even high magnification will not net you any detail on Mars. The Red Planet currently lies some 201 million miles (323 million kilometers) from Earth and its disk appears only 4\u201d across in the sky \u2014 too small to visually make out any surface features. The planet is still half a year away from its next opposition, which won\u2019t occur until February 2027. For now, simply enjoy its noticeably orange-red hue, which comes through even when observing with the naked eye.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Moon will pass 6\u00b0 north of Mars later today at 5 P.M. EDT.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sunrise: 5:31 A.M.\u00a0<br \/>Sunset: 8:29 P.M.\u00a0<br \/>Moonrise: 2:59 A.M.\u00a0<br \/>Moonset: 6:06 P.M.<br \/>Moon Phase: Waning crescent (6%)<br \/>*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List Earth\u2019s satellite shines together with the Red Planet in the constellation Aries today, visible&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,7882,82,44123],"class_list":["post-495741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-tonight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}