Today:
The eastern skies have gone to the dogs! Procyon, the star marking the Little Dog, is one of Orion’s hunting dogs, and rises at 9:30 PM. But the Great Dog comes into view a bit more than a half-hour later, as the star Sirius – the “Dog star” and the brightest star in the sky – rises at 10:00 PM EST.
Sunday:
November’s Leonid meteor shower peaks tonight, but you’ll need to stay up late to see the peak, which will occur around 1:00 AM. The Leonid shower is so-called because its shooting stars give the impression of shooting outward from the constellation Leo, which appears in the northeastern sky. The shooting stars actually result from the comet Temple-Tuttle, over the next few nights.
Monday:
Early risers tomorrow morning can look for the bright and blueish-white star Spica to rise in the east-southeast at 4:00 AM. Also rising in the east-southeast, about an hour later, will be the waning sliver of a crescent Moon. Following in the same line, between 5:45 and 6 o’clock, will be Venus, visible near the horizon for a brief stint, before getting overwhelmed by the gathering dawn.