Today:
Having moved on from Spica a few days before, the Moon is now nearly full, and is nearing Antares, a bright red star that will appear to the left, a slight below the brilliant Moon. Known as the heart of its surrounding constellation, Scorpius, Antares appears bright, even at a distance of 550 light years, because its diameter is roughly 700 times that of our sun.
Tuesday:
While the nearly Full Moon bathes the night in moonlight from its path, very low over the southern horizon, look in the opposite direction, toward the north, for a curious object, even closer to the horizon. The star Capella, among the brightest stellar luminaries in the heavens, appears low in the north-northwest as twilight ends near 10 o’clock. The spin of the Earth swings it to due north, on the horizon, at 1 AM, and then edges up to a mirrored position in the north-northeast as twilight returns near 3:30 AM.
Wednesday:
June’s Full “Strawberry” Moon might not be red, but it will seeming chasing Antares across the sky, starting as darkness follows the twilight by 10 o’clock. While the Moon starts out low in the southeast, Antares is already a little higher in the south-southeast. Continuing across the southern sky through the night, June’s Full Moon will remain low in the sky, the opposite of the June Sun, whose path arcs high.