Today:
Sirius, the Dog Star, shines bright but low in the southwest by o’clock. However, there is a second “dog star”, Procyon, or the Little Dog, directly above Sirius, much higher in the southwest. Procyon appears about half way up in the skies at 9 o’clock, ranked as the 6th brightest star we can see. Like Sirius, it belongs to our neighborhood of stars, only 11 light years from here.
Wednesday:
For night owls, or very early risers tomorrow morning, the southeastern skies host a wonderful view of the waning Gibbous Moon, rising just minutes before midnight, joined shortly later by the red star Antares, the “heart” of the Scorpion, to the lower left of the Moon. They remain low in the southeast, cresting due south at 4:00 AM, and then into the southwest as twilight brightens after 5:15 AM.
Thursday:
The northwestern skies in the evenings are home to Capella, the Goat Star. In mythology this is the nurse goat for the great Jupiter, and was rewarded with a place in the heavens. It is half way up from the horizon in the west-northwest at 9:15 PM, well below and to the right of the Twin Stars in Gemini.