In the Sky This Month

The planet Venus is the brilliant Evening Star now. It’s quite close to the crescent Moon this evening. The Moon will stand above the planet tomorrow night.

There’s a meeting of planets in the dawn sky. It’s a bit frustrating because the planets are quite low, so they are hard to see. Mercury is the brightest member of the trio, followed by Saturn, then Mars. The view is best from southern latitudes.

There’s a nice planetary alignment in the early morning sky now. Mars, Saturn, and Mercury are close together in the dawn twilight. But they are so low in the sky that you need a clear horizon and binoculars to spot them.

The Coma galaxy cluster is one of the closest clusters to Earth. It is in Coma Berenices, which is in the east at nightfall. The cluster is above the brilliant star Arcturus and to the lower left of Leo, the lion. Small telescopes reveal many of the galaxies.

The Coma star cluster, in the constellation Coma Berenices, consists of hundreds of stars about 280 light-years from Earth. The constellation is high in the east at nightfall. Under dark skies, the cluster is a good target for binoculars.

The long-lost tail of the lion climbs high across the sky this month. It’s a spray of faint stars that trails behind Leo. Today, it’s known as the hair of Queen Berenice of Egypt. Originally, though, it was the tuft of fur at the end of the lion’s tail.

One of the first planets ever found outside our own solar system orbits Tau Boštis, a fairly bright star in Boštes the herdsman. Under dark skies, Tau Boštis is visible to the eye alone, above bright yellow-orange Arcturus, which is in the east at nightfall.

Gamma Cassiopeia is the middle point of the letter M or W formed by the stars of Cassiopeia, which is in the north-northwest at nightfall. Gamma Cas is the most distant member of that pattern, at 550 light-years.

The glorious stars of winter are dropping from the evening sky this month. Most prominent among them are the stars of Taurus, the bull; Orion the hunter; and Canis Major, the big dog, all of which are in the west and southwest at nightfall.

The Moon reaches last quarter at 11:51 p.m. CDT. At first and last quarter, the Moon looks as though it were sliced through from top to bottom like a ripe melon. Half of the side facing Earth is in sunlight, while the other half is in shadow.