Today:
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.
Saturday:
The delay in the sunrise until after 7 o’clock means you don’t have to get up quite so early to enjoy an eye-catching display of the very slender waning Crescent Moon to the right of the brilliant Venus, rising just before 6 o’clock, and perhaps best seen between 6:30 to 6:45, all the while battling the brightening morning twilight. You might see them until the Sun nears the eastern horizon just after 7 o’clock.
Sunday:
The Milky Way becomes more prominent through the Fall, stretching from northeast to southwest across the top of the sky. It is our view of the Milky Way Galaxy from the inside, looking out. The Sun is embedded in a great disc of stars, and we are looking sideways through the thicker portion of the disc.