Today:
With the Moon just one day past Full, can you make out the “Man in the Moon” – created by the darker regions of the Moon? Another common figure is a rabbit or hare, with two long ears at the top, a body curved down the left side, and feet near the bottom.
Wednesday:
Mars reaches opposition tonight, rising at sunset, and setting at sunrise, for an “all-nighter” across the heavens. We are making our closest passage to Mars since December of 2022, though Mars’s very elliptical orbit changes this distance considerably. As a result, Mars will not this bright again until 2031.
Thursday:
While Mars remains a celestial show-piece in the eastern skies, a little later this evening we’ll see another pairing that’s worthy of mention. Once Mars is nearly halfway up, due east at 8 o’clock, watching the rising waning Gibbous Moon climb into the skies, accompanied to its upper right by the star Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, the Lion, just beginning his annual prowl across the heavens.