Today:
High in the east-northeast is the star Deneb, the tail of Cygnus, the Swan. Deneb is Arabic for “the tail”, though Arabs described this region as the “chicken”. While Deneb is less bright than the other members of the Summer Triangle – Vega overhead, and Altair much lower toward the south – it is actually thousands of times brighter, but farther away.

Friday:
The star Capella is right on the northern horizon, due north at 10:15 PM EDT. While it is essentially not viewable, it never sets at our latitude. By midnight, it will be rising in the north-northeast. In six months from now, it will be almost exactly overhead during the bitter cold evenings of January.

Saturday:
At around 1:00 AM, the Moon will rise within the heart of Taurus, The Bull. As the morning twilight gathers, those of us in the eastern United States will be tantalized by a close encounter between the Moon and the Pleiades. At around 5:00 AM the Moon will begin an occultation of some the stars within that cluster, but this will soon get bleached out by the glare of the sun.