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evening.
• Look in the west first thing after sunset to spot the thin waxing crescent moon. The next thing you'll notice will be the planet Jupiter - an incredibly bright object in our western twilight sky! Jupiter beams above the moon on April 12, but the moon will be creeping up closer to Jupiter on Saturday evening, April 13.
• As seen from North America at nightfall, the Pleiades star cluster is found almost directly above the moon. Sometimes, the moon can occult - cover over - some Pleiades' stars or occult Aldebaran … but not this year. The moon won't occult Aldebaran again until January 29, 2015, or next occult Alcyone (Pleiades' brightest star) until September 5, 2023.
• Brilliant reddish-orange Aldebaran represents the Bull's Eye in the constellation Taurus the Bull. The Pleiades star cluster marks the Bull's shoulder.
• The stars of Pleiades make up an open star cluster. These are truly sister stars because they formed out the same cloud of gas and dust in space. They are still moving as a group through the galaxy. However, instead of seven muses as in the Greek myth, there are some 500 stars in the Pleiades star cluster, visible to astronomers with telescopes.
• If you have a pair of binoculars or a small telescope this is a great time to use them. Crescent moons give better views of craters and mountains. Plus, you can glimpse some of the other stars in the Pleiades. And who can resist turning binoculars or a small telescope on Jupiter? If you do look at Jupiter as soon as darkness falls, and Jupiter is still relatively high in the sky, you may be able to catch Jupiter's four major moons.
• Bottom line: On the evening of April 12, the waxing crescent moon can be seen in the west after sunset below the bright planet Jupiter. The bright star Aldebaran and Pleiades star cluster are also nearby. What a beautiful sky scene. And it'll get even better tomorrow.
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