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The planet Uranus is in a good position right now. It’s halfway between Aldebaran—the bright eye of the bull—and the Pleiades star cluster. They climb into good view in late evening. Through binoculars, Uranus looks like a faint star.

Capricornus (the Sea-goat) is low in the south at nightfall. The constellation isn’t especially bright, likely invisible to light-polluted cities. But under darker skies, you can see the outline of a wide triangle. Tonight, the Moon is near the triangle’s eastern point.

☄️ The Orionid meteor shower is at its best this week! At its peak, it produces a couple of dozen “shooting stars” per hour. Find a dark skywatching site, far from city lights - The best view comes in the wee hours of the morning, after the Moon has set. [Image by James McCue]

An amazing machine is scheduled to buzz through the frigid skies of Saturn’s moon Titan in a few years, and we’ll have details! We’ll also tell you about a sea-goat, the first “dark sky” city, and more. This week — on StarDate! ow.ly/XsTw50ZZ2rB [Image via darksky .org]

The Moon is at first quarter today. It lines up at a right angle to the line between Earth and the Sun, so the Sun illuminates precisely half of the lunar hemisphere that faces our way.

Pegasus, the flying horse, stretches far across the sky this evening. Its main feature, a wide pattern of four moderately bright stars known as the Great Square, outlines its body. Its nose, the star Enif, stands to the upper right of the square.

Tau Ceti, one of the most popular star systems in science fiction, is in the constellation Cetus, the sea monster. The star climbs into view in the east-southeast by about 9 or 9:30 p.m. It is faint, so you need a starchart to help you pick it out.

The thick crescent Moon sets about three hours after sunset. On average, the Moon is about a quarter-of-a-million miles from Earth. But the distance is growing by an inch and a half per year! [waxing crescent; NASA]

Antares, the bright star at the heart of Scorpius, huddles quite close to the Moon early this evening. They set not long after the sky gets dark, so there’s not a lot of time to look for them.

The third-largest galaxy in our neighborhood, M33, is in Triangulum, which is in the east in mid evening. The galaxy is visible through binoculars as a hazy smudge of light not far from the triangle of stars that gives the constellation its name.

Vesta, the second-largest object in the asteroid belt, lines up opposite the Sun tonight. It is brightest for the year, and it’s in view all night. You need binoculars to spot it, not far below the bright planet Saturn, which is low in the east at nightfall.

Big space rocks have pounded the Moon, along with Earth and the other planets, since the birth of the solar system. We’ll have stories of several of those impacts, including one that might have destroyed a planet! All this week — on StarDate! ow.ly/etnX50ZWVik

Messier 10 is a globular cluster—hundreds of thousands of stars packed into a ball a few dozen light-years across. It is in the southwest at nightfall, to the upper right of the Sagittarius teapot. Through binoculars, it looks like a hazy smudge of light.

The star clusters NGC 869 and 884 are in the northeast as night falls, in Perseus. Together, they are known as the Double Cluster. Under dark skies, they are visible to the eye alone as a hazy smudge of light. Binoculars reveal two sparkling balls of stars.

Cassiopeia is an easy constellation to pick out. The stars of the queen form a prominent letter M or W, which is visible even through moderate light pollution. It’s in the northeast at nightfall and climbs high across the north during the night.

The stars of the Summer Triangle remain in good view in the western evening sky. The brightest member of the trio is Vega, which is high in the west in mid evening. Altair stands well to its left, with Deneb highest in the sky.