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darkness falls, look first for the waxing crescent moon. You simply can't miss Jupiter nearby because it's the brightest starlike object in the evening sky - brighter than any star.
• If you live at temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, the moon will start out lower in your evening sky and set sooner after the sun. From the Southern Hemisphere, look for the moon low in the northwest sky at dusk and nightfall. The sky chart at the right features the view as seen from southern South America.
• Tonight's moon provides a great jumping-off spot to find your way around the constellation Taurus, and adjacent constellations. The star glaring close to Jupiter is Aldebaran, Taurus's brightest star. Aldebaran, the ruddy eye of the Bull, is a red giant star and in the autumn of its years. As seen from Asia and Indonesia tonight, the moon will be closer to Aldebaran than it is in North America.
• Once the moon leaves this part of the sky, you can always use Orion's Belt to star-hop to Aldebaran and the Pleiades star cluster. Look for the constellation Orion in the southeast to western sky at nightfall and evening. Then see how Orion's Belt points to star Sirius to the southeast of Orion's Belt and to Aldebaran and to the Pleiades to the northwest. The Pleiades are difficult to see from southern temperate latitudes at this time of year.
• The Pleiades star cluster is composed of hundreds of stars that were born out of the same vast cloud of gas and dust in space. The Pleiades stars are still moving together through the galaxy. If you have binoculars, use them to get a better view of the Pleiades cluster. It won't be much longer before Pleiades drops out of the eve (Continued on page 14)
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