Today:
On this day in 1969, millions of people on the Earth watched as one man, Neil Armstrong, became the first person to visit the Moon. Tonight the Moon won’t rise until after midnight, doing so in the east-northeast at around 1:50 AM, and somewhat surrounded by 3:15, with Venus below, Aldebaran to the lower right, and Capella farther to its upper left.
Tuesday:
As twilight now falls just a little earlier than the beginning of the month, you’ll find the skies dark enough to catch a view of the bluish-white star Spica, low in the southwest. Spica, translated as a “spike of wheat”, sits on the hips of Virgo, long associated with the harvest. In another 6 weeks, Spica becomes lost in the Sun’s glare, about the time that the harvest season begins in earnest.
Wednesday:
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.