Today:
The Full “Hunter’s” Moon lights up the skies overnight, and sits between the two giant planets, Saturn and Jupiter. However, when you see the Moon climbing into the east-northeast, only Saturn is visible, and very far to the right. Jupiter rises near 9 o’clock, so if you wait an hour, Saturn will be due south, and Jupiter low in the east-northeast.
Friday:
Capella, the fourth brightest star in the northern skies, appears low in the north-northeast by 7:00 PM, climbing to one quarter of the way up, in the northeast, by 9 o’clock. The Moon, just one day past Full, shines brightly as it rises near the same time, but Capella should find no difficulty in remaining visible despite the glow of moonlight.
Saturday:
The bright, bluish-white star Vega is due west and very high at 8:00 PM EDT. Vega is one of the nearer stars to us, at a distance of 26 light years. This young star is tinted blue because it is very hot, burning up its fuel much faster than our Sun.
