Abuzz with Stars
The waxing moon reaches first-quarter phase Saturday, shining below and to the left of Jupiter. The moon is near the center of the constellation Cancer.
Were the crab not on the ecliptic, it’s doubtful it would hold its place in the zodiac, as none of its stars are brighter than 3rd magnitude. (The ecliptic is the path of the sun, moon and planets as they circle through our skies.) But what it lacks in bright stars it makes up for in sheer quantity, as it hosts the Beehive Cluster. The Beehive is near the center of Cancer, about halfway between Regulus in Leo and Pollux in Gemini. Seen with the unaided eye, it appears as a dull smudge of light. However, binoculars or a small telescope reveal dozens of individual stars. But there’s even more to the Beehive than that, as it is a stellar incubator with thousands of infant stars.
With binoculars at hand late Saturday and early Sunday, see if you can spot the ninth-magnitude asteroid Juno just above the moon. Your best chance is around 2am when the moon is about to set and the two appear above the west-northwest horizon.
Sunday the moon is to the lower left of Jupiter, while above and to the left of the moon is the first-magnitude star Regulus, the three forming a near-perfect triangle. By Monday the moon lies just four degrees below Regulus.
The five naked-eye planets are visible this week. Venus blazes in the west in evening twilight and sets in the west-northwest nearly two hours after dark. Scour the horizon below Venus for Mercury, appearing 30 minutes after sunset. The innermost planet is surprisingly bright, unlike Mars, which is just a few degrees to Mercury’s upper left. Jupiter shines high in the south as darkness falls and sets a little after 2am. Saturn rises with Scorpius around 10pm and is high in the south come dawn.