Today:
High in the southwest in the failing twilight, the First Quarter Moon appears rather cozy with the bright star Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, the Lion, just below our silvery neighbor. Regulus sits very close to the path of the Sun, the same general path that the Moon follows, so these two have a regularly scheduled meeting every 27 days and 8 hours.

Thursday:
One of the summer’s brightest stars, Antares, crests due south near 1:30 AM, marking the “heart” of the Scorpion, but also leading the Milky Way back up into the eastern skies. Look to the left of Antares, where the band of faint light belonging to our galaxy, the Milky Way, has reached more than halfway up in the east, highlighted by the stars of the Summer Triangle.

Friday:
Stretched through the east and southeast near 10 o’clock, the brilliant stars Arcturus, two-thirds of the way up in the southeast, and Vega, well to its lower left, and one third of the way above the eastern horizon, help you to locate a faint semi-circle of stars between them, the Northern Crown, closer to Arcturus.