Nightly Events

• Tonight:

  The line of Orion’s Belt stars, extended to the right, points to the red star Aldebaran, the red eye of Taurus, the Bull.  Aldebaran is 9th brightest star we can see, relatively nearby at a distance of 65 light years.  It is a Red Giant star, more than 40 times the diameter of our Sun, giving it a large surface to send out great quantities of light.

• April 1:

  High in the northeast this evening, a waxing Gibbous Moon appears in the "clutches" of Leo, the Lion. Between 8:15 and 8:45 PM, as we transition from twilight to dark, you'll see Leo's brightest star, Regulus, well below the Moon, while the curve of the stars that make his head and mane curve halfway around the Moon.

• April 2:

  Over the next 10 days to 2 weeks, Mercury makes its best evening display of the year. Our closest planet to the Sun never appears too far from the Sun, so at its best, scan the west-northwest horizon from 7:50 to 8:10 PM for a bright spark in the twilight, and about 10 minutes later than that in one week from now.