Today:
Vega, the brightest evening star, starts this night high in the west at 7 o’clock, and takes its time lowering through the northwest all evening, not setting until 2 o’clock tomorrow morning. Vega is bright, in part, because it is one of the closer stars to us, some 26 light years away, as well as cranking out 37 times as much light as our Sun.
Wednesday:
Late this evening, the waning Gibbous Moon, one day from its Last Quarter, works its way above the east-northeast horizon in the company of Mars to its upper right, somewhat subdued by the Moon’s glare. You’ll find the pair one third of the way up, due east, at midnight, progressing past due south near 5 o’clock, and still quite high in the southwest as the blush of morning twilight grows near 6 o’clock.
Thursday:
Near 8 o’clock this evening, as the Big Dipper scrapes the hills and trees along the northern horizon, look half way up in the north to find the North Star. Now continue, about the same distance to the top of the sky, where an upside-down w-shaped pattern marks Cassiopeia, the Queen, always opposite the Big Dipper as they pivot around the North Star.