Today:
Like Arcturus rising in the east, another lonely denizen of its sector of the sky is Polaris, the North Star. It appears prominent in the north because of its isolattion from any bright neighbors, but is only the 33rd brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere. At a distance of 432 light years from Earth, Polaris isn’t actually a single star, but a system comprised of three star that appear as one to the naked eye.
Saturday:
High in the south this evening are two “twin” stars, the Twins of Gemini. The stars of Gemini are the location where the planet Uranus was discovered in March of 1781 by Sir William Herschel. Uranus was last in Gemini between 1950 and 1956. Its 84 year orbit will bring it back here in 2034.
Sunday:
The brightest object in the night sky is the Moon. It’s so bright that it’s fully visible in broad daylight, when it rises in the east-northeast at 3:45 PM. On the opposite side of the sky, in the west, will emerge the second-brightest object in the night sky, Venus, which can be seen as it sinks toward the horizon by around 7:45 PM, before setting in the west-northwest at around 8:50 PM.