Today:
Low in the failing southwestern twilight between 8:45 and 9:15 PM, you will find the bright, bluish-white star Spica nearing the end of its viewing for the year. Although Spica ranks just outside the top-ten brightest stars, at 250 light years away, actually outshines the Sun by 15 thousand times!
Sunday:
The Big Dipper has settled into the northwestern skies, about one third of the way up from the horizon at 9:00 this evening. Use the handle of the Big Dipper to “arc” westward to Arcturus, a brilliant orange-white star almost the same height, but in the west. Arcturus is the brightest star in the skies this month (because Sirius is too low in the sky when re-appearing at month’s end?).
Monday:
The star Arcturus appears around 8:30 PM, as twilight gives way to darker skies, a little less than halfway up in the west. It lowers to about one third of the way up, due west at 9:30 and sets shortly after midnight. This star owes its status as the brightest star in the summer skies to its relatively close proximity, at 36 light years, as well as its enormous size, measuring 37 times the diameter of our Sun.