Today:
Early March offers good views of the planet Jupiter, and yet you can see a pronounced change. Jupiter starts the evening high in the southeast around 6:30 PM, and will set after midnight, at around 3:30 AM. It loses height each evening through the next two months, lost in the Sun’s glare by June.
Thursday:
You can watch the waning Gibbous Moon lift into the east this evening just before 9 o’clock, led by a fairly bright, bluish-white star called Spica, the only bright star in Virgo. Through the night they progress higher through the southeast, cresting due south near 2:10 AM, and settling into the southwest near 5:30 as the blush of dawn appears in the east. The moon will remain visible longer, so it’s just a question of when Spica become not visible to the naked eye.
Friday:
Very high in the west-northwest, emerging from the fading twilight near 6:30 PM, sparkles the brilliant star Capella, the fourth brightest star that we can see. What we can’t see is that it is actually a pair of bright, giant stars, each more than twice as massive as the Sun. They orbit each other once every 104 days, no farther apart than the Sun and Venus.