This Week's Night Sky: Venus Buzzes the Beehive
Grab a telescope or binoculars to get a better look at this pretty pairing of planet and stars.
The moon dances with ice giants this week, Venus visits a stunning star cluster, and a space mountain offers its best views for 2015.
Neptune is usually a tricky object to identify since, at 7.9 magnitude, it's only visible through binoculars and telescopes. However, the moon makes for a convenient guidepost this morning to the faint blue-green disk hidden among the stars of the constellation Aquarius, the water bearer.
Before local dawn, look for the last quarter moon in the southeast. Icy Neptune will appear less than 5 degrees to the west—about equal to the width of your three middle fingers held at arm’s length.
Three days later, on Friday, June 12, Neptune will come to a full stop in its eastward motion.
