Moon

New                                                  8th      04:44 -- 21:11
First Quarter                                      16th       12:58 -- 00:35
Full                                                        23rd      21:22 -- 04:48
Last Quarter                                       30th       00:19 -- 13:53

 Can we say that this is summer? Certainly much better than the last few months, so maybe it is. Short light nights during which you can almost see the Sun pass along just below the northern horizon to start lightening the sky at 3am. Warmer that winter nights though, so some blessing. Watch out for Noctilucent Clouds in the north.

Planets
Mercury and Venus have now passed over to the other side of the Sun so are no longer morning objects and are now available in the evenings instead. Jupiter and Saturn  remain on the evening side of the Sun, as before. Mars, Uranus and Neptune stay on the morning side so must be observed then.

Mercury will be easy to see on the 1st, as it follows the Sun into the west, more than an hour and a half later. It will be mag -0.3, 7 arcsec and show a 60% phase. Worth a look. Long focal length Photograph? A week later it's position relative to the Sun is the same but it is approaching the Earth as it rounds the Sun, so is a bit larger, 8 arcsec, and dimmer, mag +0.3, because it's phase is 45%. Another week later, 15th, it's mag +0.8, 9 arcsec and showing a phase of 32%. On the 22nd it will be closer to the Sun so be more careful with optical aids. It will be mag +1.6, 10 arcsec and have a 20% phase. After that it's too close to the Sun for observing, but if you could, on the 30th it would be mag +3, 11 arcsec and show a 7% phase!

Mercury, Venus and Jupiter will welcome the month with the three setting in company soon after the Sun, but far enough away to give good photographic opportunities. But Jupiter will soon leave the field to Mercury and Venus as it runs fast towards a position behind the Sun. Mercury and Venus can be followed for half the month, joined on the 10th by a thin crescent Moon, 7° away, all unfortunately in the horizon’s murkiness.

Venus is there with Mercury, following the Sun down in the west, and can be seen for over an hour after sunset. It will have a bright mag -3.9, 10 arcsec disc. It's on the far side of the Sun so won't change phase much. It will continue to be available all month as the Evening Star.

Mars is on the morning side of the Sun but as it rises only half an hour before the Sun, its 4 arcsec, mag +1.4 disc will be difficult to see in the dawn twilight. It may be easier at the end of the month when it will rise an hour before the Sun, when it's brightness will have not changed.

Jupiter passed behind the Sun during this month, changing from an evening object to a morning one. On the 1st it will set just under an hour after the Sun, but it's mag -1.9 disc should be easy enough to see, but too low for much detail to be seen. A week later and it will set only 20 mins after the Sun so beware. On the 30th of the month it will be rising, on the other side of the sky, 20 mins before the Sun, again unsafe. So we've virtually lost Jupiter this month, and will have to be satisfied with Saturn.

Saturn will be available due south as darkness falls on the 1st, a mag +0.3, 18 arcsec disc, with handles as Galileo thought. It will set about 3:30am in dawn twilight. At the end of the month it will still be there at dusk, though it will be further west than south and will set at 1:40am. Much of its less than good display is due to the shortness and brightness of the English summer sky, and to its low altitude.

Uranus is a morning object rising 2 hours before the Sun on the 1st at 2:50am, so should be easy to see if you know where its mag -5.9 and 3 arcsec disc can be found. It will be in Pisces, and will look like any other star. The half Moon will be  26° further west. On the 3rd, the Moon, slimmer now, will be 3° directly above it at 4:30am. Unfortunately all the nearby stars are of similar magnitudes. But it will be blue, so you may have to examine each. The only other way is to use a well set up goto telescope. On the 30th it will rise at 1:00am

Neptune is similarly difficult. A morning object too, rising 3 hours before the Sun at 2am, and smaller at mag +7.9 and 2 arcsec. On the 1st it will be 41° to the west of the Moon.  Again little in the way of easily recognisable objects nearby. Again it's blue so you may be reduced to examining all nearby stars, or have to use a well set up goto telescope. Binoculars are unlikely to be able to tell you which of the spots you see is the planet. Its position won't change during the month except that it will rise at midnight.

Meteor Showers
Several very small showers, the only one with more than 20/hour is the Arietids with the Radiant below the Pleiades, in Aries,  with the peak on the 7th. But the peak is in daytime so it's quite narrow spread will likely have been reduced to very little by the time the bright summer night descends.

Comets
The local hero, C/2011 L4 Panstarrs,  is still there in Ursa Minor, making its way towards Kochab, which it encounters on the 18th, and beyond. It will continue to reduce in brightness from mag +9.5 on the 1st to +10.9 on the 30th. That's the forecast, but comets are delicate and could split up as many have done, so still worth watching and photographing. There are many others in the sky, but none of enough brightness to be worth special study other than the one supposedly going to be the best this century. Newspaper hype. It's C/2012 S1 ISON, and it's in Gemini on Castor's leg on the 1st, at mag +14.6. By the 30th it will be approaching Pollux's chest at mag +14.0, so getting nearer.