Today:
Orion is now slipping slowly into the southwest, found about one third of the way up from the horizon around 9:30 PM EDT this evening. The bright star below his three belt stars, Rigel, remains distinct. A stellar powerhouse, Rigel generates 120,000 times more light than our Sun, but at a distance of nearly 900 light years.
Monday:
As the star Arcturus climbs to one third of the way above the eastern horizon at 11:00 PM this, look for another brilliant star to return to the skies, the bluish-white Vega, just rising in the north-northeast. Vega appears on any clear night of the year, but shifts into evening skies in the Spring.
Tuesday:
The brightest star in the sky, Sirius, sparkles in the south as twilight fades by 8:00 PM, sliding into the southwest through the course of the evening, one of the first stars out as twilight fades. Its brilliance is due, in part to its relative closeness, only 8.6 light years away, as well as putting out about 25 times more light than our Sun.