Today:
One of the brightest stars in the sky, and part of the Summer Triangle, Vega, is flickering in the northwest by dark. Vega gets its name from the German “Wega”, which came from “Al Waki”, Arabic for “the falling or swooping eagle”. It will set at 9:23 PM EST.
Monday:
Harry Potter in the sky? Looking in the southeast after 7:00 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!
Tuesday:
As we look forward to the New Year, watch Mars rising in the northeast before 6 o’clock tonight, having doubled its brightness over the course of this month, nearing its brightest display in another 2 weeks. The orbits of Mars and Earth align every 25 months, as we reach our minimum distance, and therefore Mars’s maximum brightness. After January of 2025, Mars is brilliant again in February of 2027.