These next several nights - October 14, 15, 16 and 17, 2018 - watch the waxing moon move from Saturn to Mars, and with the mind's-eye, envision the invisible dwarf planet Pluto in between these two bright worlds.
The moon is back in the evening sky - low in the west after sunset - as a waxing crescent. The bright object near it is our solar system's biggest planet, Jupiter.
You don't have to identify a meteor shower's radiant point to watch the show. But the radiant of the Draconids is fun to find! Here are some ways to do it.
The lit portion of the waning moon always points eastward. That's also the moon's direction of travel in front of the background stars. Watch the moon wane in the coming mornings, as it sweeps through Leo.
Even in the moon's glare, you should be able to make out Aldebaran, Taurus' brightest star, as well as the tiny, misty, dipper-shaped Pleiades star cluster.
It's the full moon closest to the autumn equinox. For us in the Northern Hemisphere, it means no great lag time between sunset and moonrise, in this season of waning daylight.
Greatest brilliancy for Venus is a delicate balance between how much we see of its day side, and the changing distance between our 2 worlds. Conditions are now optimum! Venus looms low in the twilight, dazzlingly bright.
Bruce McClure served as lead writer for EarthSky's popular Tonight pages from 2004 to 2021, when he opted for a much-deserved retirement. You can still find many articles at EarthSky.org that were originally written by Bruce, and which the EarthSky editors still update regularly. Bruce is 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. Bruce he loves cycles of all kinds! You can still find many articles at EarthSky with Bruce's name on them, exploring the various, intricate cycles of the sky.