Tonight's moon lies in direction of our galaxy's center

• The full moon only happened a few days ago, so the moon tonight will still look plenty bright as it shines from late night until dawn. At mid-northern latitudes in North America, the moon rises into the southeast sky about four hours after sunset, in a waning gibbous phase. That's around midnight local time. Tonight's moon is located in the direction toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. So as you gaze at tonight's moon, you can imagine gazing toward our galaxy's heart.
• How can you learn to see toward the galaxy's center in our night sky? On May 8, 2012, the

moon beams in front of the constellation Sagittarius the Archer, in the direction to the galaxy's center. If you learn to recognize this constellation, you can gaze toward the galactic center whenever Sagittarius is in the sky.
• Sagittarius is easy to recognize - assuming you have a dark-enough sky - because it contains a recognizable pattern, or asterism, known as The Teapot. You probably won't make out the Teapot tonight because of the lunar glare. But if you anchor yourself among some landmarks (say, a pair of trees on the horizon), and come back a few nights from now at the same time you looked tonight, you will be able to pick out the Teapot pattern.
• At present, the Teapot clears the horizon after midnight. But the Teapot rises about 4 minutes earlier each day or 2 hours earlier each month. So by the time of the solstice on June 20, the Teapot should be visible around 10 p.m.
• By August, Sagittarius and its Teapot pattern will be visible immediately after sunset. In a dark sky, you'll see that the Teapot lies in the thickest part of the starry band of the Milky Way on our sky's dome. Why is the region behind Sagittarius so rich with stars? Because it is located toward the galaxy's center, which is more

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