In the Sky This Month

Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, looks like a brilliant star close to the right of the Moon at nightfall. It stays close to the Moon throughout the night.

The Moon slides between two bright lights tonight. The planet Jupiter is close to the lower left of the Moon at nightfall. It’s brighter than anything in the night sky except the Moon and Venus. The star Spica is farther to the right of the Moon.

Spica, the leading light of Virgo, perches to the lower right of the Moon at nightfall. It is one of the brighter stars in the sky, and it’s not close to any other bright stars, so it stands out.

A few minutes after sunset, look for a blue-gray band of color just above the eastern horizon, with pink above it. The dark band is Earth’s shadow. As Earth turns on its axis, the shadow will engulf you as the daytime sky gives way to night.

Scorpius, the scorpion, is entering prime evening viewing time. Its brightest star, Antares, rises about an hour after sunset, with the scorpion’s “stinger” following about an hour later. Look for orange Antares low in the southeast by 10 or 11 p.m.

Mars is climbing into better view by the day. Right now, the planet stands about a third of the way up the southern sky at first light, and looks like a bright orange star.

The first-quarter Moon snuggles especially close to a bright companion tonight. Regulus, the heart of Leo, the lion, will stand just a degree or so from the Moon as night falls, which is less than the width of your finger held at arm’s length.

A pair of eyes stares down from the northeast as night falls right now — the brightest stars of Draco, the dragon. They are above brilliant Vega, one of the night sky’s most prominent stars. The brighter eye is Eltanin, the dragon’s leading light.

A pair of stuck-together stars is visible through binoculars in Cepheus, the king, which is low in the north at nightfall. VW Cephei is about 90 light-years away. Its two stars share their outer layers of gas, so they look like a glowing peanut.

Vega, in Lyra, the harp, is climbing into the evening sky. It is low in the northeast as the sky gets fully dark, and climbs high overhead during the night. Vega is the third-brightest nighttime star visible from most of the United States.