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20 | THE COLONY NEWS | JUNE 2023 | By Mike Vergara, 951- 461-2889 June marks the halfway point in our travel through the year. Summer arrives this month (hopefully without the extreme heat) with the longest day of the year. Venus will be at its highest in the evening sky and will start heading back towards the sun. And to top it off, Saturn will enter a period of retrograde motion. Normally, planets seem to move across the sky from west to east. When the Earth, in its smaller and faster orbit, catches up with and passes another planet, for a while it appears that the planet moves towards the west. This reversal of the apparent motion is called "retrograde," and Saturn will continue in this apparent path until November. In October there will be an "annular" solar eclipse that will be visible across the western United States. Annular eclipses are often referred to as "ring of fire" eclipses because the sun is not completely covered by the moon. The eclipse starts in Oregon at 9:13 am PDT, then proceeds across Nevada, Utah, parts of Arizona and Colorado, New Mexico, and finishes in Texas at 12:03 pm CDT. Locally, the moon will cover approximately 70 percent of the sun's face, making our view a partial eclipse. Please remember to NEVER look directly at the sun. Even brief glances can cause serious and possibly permanent eye damage. The full moon on June 4 is historically called the "Full Strawberry Moon." Not because it will appear to be pink or red, but because these tasty berries usually reach their full ripeness around this time. Other names for this moon include the "Egg-Laying Moon," the "Honey Moon," and the "Green Corn Moon." By any name, full moons are usually brilliant sights! To find where the planets and constellations are, visit http://skymaps.com/index.html. From there you can print your own map of the sky for the month. Clear skies! june sky june sky In Memoriam Beverly Biggs Hannelore Heinrich Joyce Routson

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