NASA's June skywatching guide puts Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, the Moon, the solstice, and summer deep-sky targets on one calendar, and the paper's May 28 story on Hubble and Webb showing one telescope is not enough argued that public astronomy improves when instruments and limits are visible. [1]

The pretty part is easy: Venus and Jupiter met after sunset around June 9, Mercury joined the low western scene from June 11 through June 15, the Moon passes in front of Venus for some viewers on June 17, and June 21 brings the solstice and astronomical summer in the Northern Hemisphere. [1]

For viewers in parts of the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Venezuela, that June 17 event can become a daytime occultation; for others it is a close Moon-Venus pairing, which is how a calendar item becomes a backyard plan. [1]

Then comes the sentence that matters most: do not point binoculars, a telescope, or a camera near the sun without proper solar safety equipment, because looking at or near the sun through optics can cause serious eye injury. [1]

The safe version does the sky as beauty plus instruction; that is not less romantic, because it is how a child gets to look again next month.

-- MAYA CALLOWAY, New York