Today:
Settling into the northwest as evening descends, the Queen of the heavens, Cassiopeia, remains well placed for viewing, about one third of the way above the horizon. Her W-shaped pattern of 5 stars pivots around the North Star, and each spring looks more and more like the celestial throne she sits upon.
Thursday:
As the star Arcturus climbs to one third of the way above the eastern horizon at 10:30 PM 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.
Friday:
Very high in the west near 7 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.