This week in What’s Up is another grab bag of events that will happen in the upcoming week. Let’s start with planets.

Mercury will be four degrees from the Moon on June 27.

Neptune, one of the two ice giants that we definitely should have sent a major orbiter and atmospheric probe mission to yesterday, will be stationary on June 28. Contrary to the dozens of Google search results about astrology Erik found when researching this subject, this term has no special meaning. 

Stationary means the planet appears to stop moving in the sky, as viewed by an observer standing on the surface of Earth. This event happens only for a day or so, and then Neptune will appear to move backward because Earth completes an orbit quicker than Neptune does. So at some point in Earth’s orbit, Earth seems to be ahead of Neptune, and Neptune moves in retrograde, though in reality, both planets are moving in the same direction.

This same effect happens with all planets relative to Earth at different points in their orbits, most famously Mercury. But no, retrograde motion doesn’t have any effect on your life.

Finally, the New Moon will be on June 29. This is the perfect time to see those faint fuzzies in the sky without the Moon washing out your view. There are lots to see up in the sky, especially because the Earth is in a position to see the disk of the Milky Way pitched across the sky right now. We are looking through the densest part of the Milky Way filled with all of the most exciting things to see in binoculars or a telescope of any size.

As always, go outside and look up.

More Information

Neptune at opposition (In the Sky)