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This Week's Sky at a Glance logo

This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, June 8 – 16

Vega is the brightest star very high in the east after dark. Just lower left of it is 4th-magnitude Epsilon Lyrae, the Double-Double. Epsilon forms one corner of a roughly equilateral triangle with Vega and Zeta Lyrae.

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, June 1 – 9

The Big Dipper hangs diagonally high in the northwest after dark this week, while Cassiopeia lies low in the north.

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 25 – June 2

  Friday, May 25 • As the waxing gibbous Moon crosses the sky tonight, Spica hangs below it, as shown in early twilight here. • The Arch of Spring spans the western sky in late twilight, arching over Venus. Pollux and Castor form the Arch's top; they're lined up over…

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 18 – 26

Stars, planets, the Moon, constellations -- daily sky sights for the unaided eye, binoculars and telescopes

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 11 – 19

This week Venus shines in the west during twilight. Jupiter glares in the southeast at nightfall, and Mars and Saturn rise late at night.

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 4 – 12

Want to become a better astronomer? Learn your way around the constellations! They're the key to locating everything fainter and deeper to hunt with binoculars or a telescope.

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, April 27 – May 5

Keep an eye on the changing pattern of Venus with Aldebaran and the Pleiades, in the west as twilight fades.

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, April 20 – 28

Friday, April 20 • This evening the dark limb of the crescent Moon will occult 4th-magnitude multiple star Nu Geminorum, in the feet of Gemini, for parts of the southern U.S. and points south. For rough time estimates at your location, interpolate between the time predictions in the April Sky…

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, April 13 – 21

After dark, Leo walks horizontally across the meridian high in the south. His brightest star is Regulus, the bottom star of Leo's Sickle.

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, April 6 – 14

The two Dog Stars stand vertically aligned around the end of twilight. Look southwest. Brilliant Sirius in Canis Major is below; Procyon in Canis Minor is high above.

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, March 30 – April 7

After nightfall, Orion is still well up in the southwest in his spring orientation: striding down to the right, with his belt horizontal. Shining above the belt is bright orange Betelgeuse. Down below the belt is bright white Rigel.

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, March 23 – 31

The first-quarter Moon shines high above Orion on the evening of March 24, 2018, in the feet of Gemini below Castor and Pollux.

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, March 16 – 24

Watch the low in the east-northeast for the rise of the "Spring Star," Arcturus. Find the Big Dipper high in the northeast and follow the curve of its handle far around and down to see where Arcturus will be.

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, March 9 – 17

  Friday, March 9 • Just after twilight fades away this week, bright Sirius stands due south on the meridian. Sirius is the bottom star of the equilateral Winter Triangle. The Triangle's other two stars are orange Betelgeuse (Orion's shoulder) to Sirius's upper right, and Procyon to Sirius's upper left.…

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, March 2 – 10

Mercury and much brighter Venus glow shyly side by side very low in the west in twilight early in the week, then they slowly pull farther apart.

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, February 23 – March 3

  Friday, February 23 • First-quarter Moon (exact at 3:09 a.m. on this date EST). For North America this evening, the Moon shines left or upper left of Aldebaran, and farther upper right of Orion, as shown here. The Moon occults Aldebaran in daylight or twilight for northern and western…

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, February 16 – 24

Now the waxing crescent Moon is easier to see in the west-southwest after sunset. Its curved side points the way down toward Venus.

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, February 9 – 17

Sirius the Dog Star blazes in the southeast after dinnertime, the brightest star of Canis Major. Orion stands high to its upper right.

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, February 2 – 10

The Winter Hexagon fills the sky toward the east and south these evenings. Start with brilliant Sirius at its bottom. Going clockwise from there, march up through Procyon, Pollux and Castor, Menkalinan and Capella on high, down to Aldebaran, then to Rigel in Orion's foot, and back to Sirius.

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This Week's Sky At a Glance

This Week's Sky at a Glance, January 26 – February 3

The Moon, two days past first quarter, shines to the right of Aldebaran and lower left of the Pleiades. The Great Square of Pegasus is sinking in the west.