Today:
The brilliant star in the southwest to the left of Orion’s belt is Sirius, the Dog Star. As it lowers closer to the horizon, notice that as it twinkles, it flashes many colors. Its light is bending on its way through our atmosphere, giving us pin-point glimpses of its spectrum or rainbow, one color at a time.
Tuesday:
Sirius, the Dog Star, shines bright but low in the southwest by o’clock. However, there is a second “dog star”, Procyon, or the Little Dog, directly above Sirius, much higher in the southwest. Procyon appears about half way up in the skies at 9 o’clock, ranked as the 6th brightest star we can see. Like Sirius, it belongs to our neighborhood of stars, only 11 light years from here.
Wednesday:
For night owls, or very early risers tomorrow morning, the southeastern skies host a wonderful view of the waning Gibbous Moon, rising just minutes before midnight, joined shortly later by the red star Antares, the “heart” of the Scorpion, to the lower left of the Moon. They remain low in the southeast, cresting due south at 4:00 AM, and then into the southwest as twilight brightens after 5:15 AM.