Today:
Night owls at 3:00 tomorrow morning will see a waning Crescent Moon due east, accompanied by the royal star Regulus, the “heart” of Leo, the Lion. If that’s too early, they climb higher into the southeast, about two thirds of the way up from the horizon, from 6:15 to 6:45 AM, to be joined by Venus low in the east, as the morning twilight gathers.
Thursday:
Guess who is now fully risen before midnight? The Winter champion Orion lifts into the east and southeast for night owls, tracking to due south by 4:45 AM tomorrow morning, and then heads into the southwest just as twilight begins, around 6 o’clock.
Friday:
Cresting due south this evening at 11 o’clock, Saturn is easy to locate, about half way up. Then, turn your gaze lower, more to the right of due south, where a rather bright, but rarely noticed star makes its best evening appearance of the year. Known to astronomers as Fomalhaut, the name originates from Arabic for the “mouth of the fish”, part of the constellation, the Southern Fish.