Today:
Harry Potter in the sky? Looking in the southeast after 7:15 this evening, we see the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, rising. It is known as the Dog Star, and in the Harry Potter books, his god-father Sirius turns into a dog. Likewise, Sirius’s sister is Bellatrix, the star that marks the left shoulder (our right) of Orion, called the “female warrior”, and in the books she indeed fights!
Monday:
Tomorrow morning, from 6:15 to 6:45 AM, the morning twilight offers some fleeting glimpses before they all disappear with the rising Sun: The summer stars of Scorpius, the Scorpion return to the skies, first with his claws, and then a splendid encounter of the thin Crescent Moon, barely to the right of the red star Antares
Tuesday:
Due east at 6:30 PM EST, two thirds up in the sky is the star Algol, which is Arabic for the “evil one”. Ancient people considered the star evil because it was not always the same brightness. Since stars were part of heaven and therefore perfect, any star not perfect was evil. Modern tele-scopes show it is really two stars, one bright, and one dim that occasionally blocks the light of the brighter star.