Today:
Shortly before 11 PM, the waning gibbous Moon will rise arm in arm with Spica, the brightest star of the constellation Virgo. They will break to horizon in the east-southeast, with the bluish-white Spica just to the Moon’s left. If you’ll be up very late, you can follow this conjunction across the southern sky by 4 AM. The predawn twilight will bleach out the Moon’s companion, but the Moon will remain visible until it sets at around 9:20 tomorrow morning.
Saturday:
The waning Moon doesn’t rise until a few minutes before midnight, allowing dark evening skies to reveal the splendors of the Milky Way arched over the top of the sky. Early this evening, in the midst of the Milky Way and directly overhead near 7:55 PM, the star Capella sparkles as the 4th brightest star we can see.
Sunday:
On the next clear night, it should be quite easy to find the brightest star – the North Star, right? No! As you scan the skies, tonight our brightest star emerges from the twilight in the southeast near 6:00 PM, and will be due south at 9:20 PM. You are watching Sirius, known commonly as the “Dog Star”, relatively close to us at only 8.6 light years away.