Today:
For those that enjoy the early mornings, tomorrow and Saturday mornings will add some interesting celestial viewing. Rising by 3 o’clock, but much higher and easier to view by 6:00 AM, a waning Crescent Moon makes its monthly visit to the bluish-white star Spica, just below the Moon, the pair one third of the way up in the southeast, fading as twilight brightens by 6:30 AM.
Friday:
The waning Crescent Moon continues its early morning display, tomorrow morning moving from Spica, where it was this morning, and over to the company of Venus tomorrow morning. They rise in the east-southeast just before 4:00 AM, climbing higher into the southeast, one quarter of the way up by 6 o’clock, remaining visible until just about sunrise.
Saturday:
Due east at 7:55 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.