The Beehive Cluster is an open cluster that lies near the center of the constellation Cancer the Crab. It goes by many names, including Praesepe and M44.
Sirius is the brightest star in Earth's sky because of how close it is to us. It's so bright you might see glints of different colors radiating from it.
Watch for the 3 bright stars of the Summer Triangle - Vega, Deneb and Altair - before dawn in March, before midnight in May and at dusk on the summer solstice.
Alphard is the "heart" and brightest star in the constellation Hydra the Water Snake, and it represents a welcome sign of spring for the Northern Hemisphere.
Circumpolar stars are those that never rise nor set from a certain location. At the poles, all stars are circumpolar, while at the equator, no star is.
Taurus the Bull resides near the constellation Orion. In particular, it contains two famous star clusters that are easy to spot: the Pleiades and the Hyades.
Bruce McClure served as lead writer for EarthSky's popular Tonight pages from 2004 to 2021, when he opted for a much-deserved retirement. He's a sundial aficionado, whose love for the heavens has taken him to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and sailing in the North Atlantic, where he earned his celestial navigation certificate through the School of Ocean Sailing and Navigation. He also wrote and hosted public astronomy programs and planetarium programs in and around his home in upstate New York.