The Moon has a date with a popular asterism early this week. It’ll be in something known as the “Winter Circle” Sunday, Monday & Tuesday. The “Winter Circle” is made up of bright stars from popular winter constellations. It’s doesn’t make a perfect circle but seldom do you find perfect shapes in nature. Look in the east in the evening. Above is how you’ll find the sky on Monday evening. Luckily it’ll be in the asterism for three nights so hopefully we’ll get some clearing one of those evenings & you can see it.
Speaking of the Moon it’ll be brightening up this week as well. The Full Moon officially arrives on Thursday at 2:16 in the afternoon. This month’s Full Moon is known as the Full Wolf Moon because wolves could be heard howling in the distance this time of year. It’s also known as the Full Cold Moon.
Jupiter will be in conjunction with the Sun on Thursday as well. This is when the planet will be very close to our star as observed from Earth. This happens at about 9 p.m. Because the two are so close the planet will be washed out by the sun’s glare and actually below the horizon when the conjunction takes place.
The Moon has a date with Leo late in the week. On Friday night it’ll be right over the heart of the lion. Look for Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation, just below & right of our satellite. Happy hunting!
