Today:
This evening the Waxing Gibbous Moon will rise in the southeast about an hour before sunset. As nearly-full Moons do in the summer, it will ride low across the southern sky overnight. And it has made another temporary friend. This time it’s the reddish star Antares, the brightest within Scorpio. Antares will appear above and to the right of the Moon, as the twilight fades.
Sunday:
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 very low in the north-northwest as twilight ends near 9:45 PM. The spin of the Earth swings it to due north, on the horizon, at 11:30 AM, and then edges up to a mirrored position in the north-northeast as twilight returns near 1:45 AM.
Monday:
June’s Full “Strawberry” Moon might not be red, but it will seem to chase 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.