Today:
The brightening Gibbous Moon overwhelms more and more of the fainter stars, but turning your gaze to the north reveals two patterns that can compete with the Moon’s glow – the Big Dipper, and Cassiopeia, the Queen. The more familiar Big Dipper continues to ease a bit lower into the northwest, the bottom of the Dipper about one third of the way up, while the Queen, shaped like the letter “W”, has risen to one third of the way up in the northeast.
Wednesday:
With the Summer Triangle almost overhead, look at its lowest star Altair, and then to the left of Altair. A faint, compact collection of stars may catch your eyes, the constellation Delphinus, the Dolphin. It appears like a comma, but perhaps you can imagine a dolphin leaping from right to left, out of the celestial waters.
Thursday:
Looking high in the east at 10 PM revels Cygnus the Swan, its tail marked by the bright star Deneb, which is also a member of the Summer Triangle. Cygnus will move almost overhead by midnight when, just to its south, you can see Aquila the Eagle, and its bright star, Altair, which is another point on the Summer Triangle.