Today:
High in the southeast this evening, starting near 7 o’clock, a waxing Gibbous Moon shines just below a pair of stars, quite fittingly known as the Twins, or Gemini. As one of the zodiac constellations, the Moon tracks through these stars every 27 days and 8 hours, which brings us a similar display at the end of this month.
Friday:
As the star Arcturus climbs to one third of the way above the eastern horizon 11 o’clock this evening, look for another brilliant star to return to the skies, the bluish-white Vega, just rising in the northeast. Vega appears on any clear night of the year, but shifts into evening skies in the Spring.
Saturday:
Very high in the west near 8 o’clock sparkles the brilliant star Capella, the fourth brightest star that we can see. What we can’t see is that it is actually a pair of bright, giant stars, each more than twice as massive as the Sun. They orbit each other once every 104 days, no farther apart than the Sun and Venus.