In the Sky This Month

The bright orange star Aldebaran marks the eye of Taurus, the bull. It’s low in the western sky as evening twilight fades. It stands a little to the left of Venus, the brilliant Evening Star.

Several famous constellations highlight this evening’s sky. At nightfall, the “twins” of Gemini stand almost straight up in the west. Leo, the lion, is high in the south, while Virgo and Hercules are just climbing into view in the east and northeast.

The faint constellations Corvus and Crater flow across the southern evening sky at this time of year. In mythology, the god Apollo sent Corvus, the crow, to fill Crater, the cup, with water. He failed, and the angry god hurled both crow and cup into the heavens.

As seen from the eastern United States, the Moon will occult Regulus this evening, passing in front of Leo’s brightest star and blocking it from view. The rest of the country will see an impressively close encounter between them.

Venus, the brilliant Evening Star, points the way to two other wonders right now: the planet Uranus and the Pleiades star cluster. The Pleiades looks like a tiny dipper to the right of Venus. Uranus is a little closer below Venus, but you need binoculars to see it.

The planet Jupiter is high in the west at nightfall. It looks like a brilliant star. In all the night sky, only the Moon and the planet Venus outshine it. The stars Pollux and Castor, the twins of Gemini, stand above it.

The planet Jupiter appears just below the Moon tonight. It looks like a brilliant star. Through binoculars, Jupiter’s four largest moons look like tiny stars quite close to the planet.

The planets Venus and Uranus cross paths in the evening sky this week. Venus is the Evening Star. Uranus is a couple of degrees to its upper left tonight, and is easy to see with binoculars. They will be even closer on Thursday, standing almost side by side.

The Lyrid meteor shower should be at its best the next couple of nights. Even at its peak, the shower produces no more than a dozen or so meteors per hour. But the Moon won’t get in the way, so if you have good weather and a good viewing spot, it’s worth a look.

The Moon is passing through the bull tonight. The bull’s “eye,” represented by the star Aldebaran, is to the left of the Moon. The bull’s face and shoulder are even closer, represented by a pair of star clusters, the Hyades and the Pleiades.