Celebration of Space - June 19, 2026
The Summer Solstice occurs on Sunday, June 21, 2026 at 4:25 am.
On Sunday, June 21, 2026 at 4:25 am ET, Earth will arrive at the point in its orbit where the Northern Hemisphere is at maximum tilt (23.4°) towards the Sun. This is the Summer Solstice and marks the first day of the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere. On the Summer Solstice, the Sun will pass directly overhead at noon along the Tropic of Cancer, and will bring the shortest nighttime period of the year in the north. The Arctic Circle will see the Midnight Sun, and the Antarctic Circle will see Polar Night. The Summer Solstice also brings beach days, late summer sunsets, no school, picnics, Milky Way nights, the Summer Triangle, and a season full of heat loving zealotry. It also signals a shift to the period of the year when the days start getting shorter, as we start orbiting towards the Autumnal Equinox. So step outside on Sunday and welcome summer!
Over the next several nights, three planets will be putting on a celestial dance in the southwest → western sky during twilight. The three planets are Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury. In order of brightness Venus will be the brightest object, followed by Jupiter, and then Mercury. Mercury is also the short-lived guest in the conjunction as Mercury’s orbit around the Sun is quite fast, at only 88 days. During this time Mercury will orbit along the eastern and western sides of the Sun, allowing for a brief view in either the early morning predawn sky or the evening twilight sky. Maximum Eastern Elongation, which is Mercury’s highest point in the evening sky, occurred on June 15. 2026. So Mercury is still at a good altitude for viewing. Step outside any night this week that has a clear sky over the western horizon to spot the planets. Jupiter will be the easternmost object, followed by Venus, then Mercury.
This past week, daytime sky watchers were treated to a fantastic occultation of Venus, which occurred on Wednesday, June 17th during the afternoon hours. At Frosty Drew we were surprised by heavier cloud cover moving in just in time for the occultation. Though clouds cleared out before the occultation completed and we had spectacular views of Venus emerging from behind the Moon. We live streamed the occultation to your YouTube and the archived video is available.
Occultations occur when an object closer to Earth visibly passes in between Earth and a more distant object’s line of sight. Most occultations involve the Moon occulting bright stars, planets, or the Sun (solar eclipse). Though occasionally an asteroid or planet will occult a star. The next notable occultation for our region will occur on Tuesday, October 6, 2026 during the early morning hours when the 17% waning crescent Moon occults Jupiter. At Frosty Drew we will be on site for the event and will host a livestream on our YouTube as well. Check out our event page for additional information.
As we ramp up for the summertime-kick-off in the Northern Hemisphere, noctilucent cloud viewing season is well under way. Noctilucent clouds (NLC) are thin clouds that form in Earth’s mesosphere. Composed of water vapor that rises in the summer months, freezes, and collects on tiny specks of meteor dust, NLCs are the highest clouds that form in Earth’s atmosphere. The elusive nature of NLCs make them a challenge to spot. For one, they only occur in and around the summer months, and are most visible between 50° and 70° latitudes. They also require the observer to be well into twilight with a clear view of the western horizon at sunset or the eastern horizon at sunrise. Because NLCs are so tenuous, they are only visible when sunlight grazes the mesosphere, illuminating the clouds, making them visible to an observer that can still see the sunlit mesosphere from their late twilight location. At least three Frosty Drew Observatory astronomers have observed NLCs, with one of them spotting them at Frosty Drew Observatory. Recent studies have shown that the solar sunspot cycle has an impact on NLC’s, specifically Solar Minimum, which is the period of the sunspot cycle with little-to-no sunspot activity. Since we are at Solar Maximum of the current cycle (cycle 25), NLCs will be less prominent than we have seen in the past. There are so many night photographers out shooting the Milky Way in New England, but we never see any captures of noctilucent clouds. If you’re a night photographer in New England, obsessed with the night sky, we challenge you to capture the elusive noctilucent clouds. They will be visible 30–60 minutes after sunset, low in the western sky, or 30–60 minutes before sunrise, low in the east sky. NLCs will appear as luminous silver-blue wisps or tendrils that are dimly visible in the sky. If you catch a photo, send it to astronomer@frostydrew.org, and include any attribution information. If the photo has actual NLCs in it, we’ll add it to a noctilucent cloud gallery that we are curating on our website (once we or others actually capture a photo, which to date we have been unsuccessful), as well as share on our social media. Good luck!
