This Week’s Night Sky: Watch a Parade of Planets
The moon will gather with a colorful ensemble of planets and stars, leading up to the year’s best view of the red planet Mars.
The two objects will be less than five degrees apart—about as wide as your three middle fingers held at arm’s length. Flanking the pair will be Mars to the left and Jupiter to the right. Meanwhile, the bright orange-hued star Arcturus will hang above the ensemble.
Despite being 250 light-years from Earth, Spica is the 15th brightest star in the entire night sky. That’s because the point of light is actually two hot blue stars orbiting each other. The larger star of the pair is about 13,000 times brighter than our own sun.
If you have binoculars and telescopes handy, definitely check out Saturn. The giant planet is only two weeks away from its best apparition of the year, when it will
