Today:
At around 6:30 PM, and about halfway up in the east-southeast appears the Moon and Mars. Very close together and in the heart of the Gemini Twins. The Twins are oriented horizontally, with their respective heads, the stars Pollux (below) and Castor (above), to left of the Moon and Mars. Mars remains near the Twins through April, before racing east through Cancer, the Crab in May, and to Leo in June and July.
Monday:
Brilliant moonlight will hamper stargazers this evening, but the trio of bright stars marking Orion’s Belt should be easy to spot, due south in the evenings near 8:10 PM. The star on the left, Alnitak, is actually a triplet of stars, the two primary stars orbiting each other every 7 years, the larger of the two being 20 times larger, and 250 thousand times brighter than the Sun!
Tuesday:
The Moon is just one day shy of Full as it rises in the company of Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, the Lion. Tomorrow night the pair will emerge from the dimming twilight by 6:30 PM, and will be due east two hours later. They crest high in the south just after midnight, and will then slowly descend into the west as sunrise approaches.