• If you've been watching the crescent moon over the past several evenings, you know that - since it returned to the evening sky around the June solstice 2012 - the moon has climbed higher up in the west and waxed slightly fuller each evening. In the days ahead, the waxing moon will keep climbing higher and growing larger, to meet up with the planet Mars in a few more days.
• Tonight, on the evening of June 23, the moon is well placed after sunset in the early evening, shining somewhat close to the star Regulus - sometimes called the Little King or Heart of the Lion - in the constellation Leo. Face the western sky just after it grows dark, and you can easily find the lunar crescent,

poised silently near Regulus, Leo's brightest star. In far eastern part of the world - Europe, Africa, Asia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand - you'll actually see the moon closer to Regulus tomorrow, on the evening of June 24.
• If you can find Regulus and Mars an hour or so after sunset, draw an imaginary line from Mars through Regulus to see if you can spot Mercury, the innermost planet of the solar system, by the horizon. Mercury pops out as dusk just begins to turn into darkness. Although Mercury is visible to the unaided eye, binoculars help you to see this world all the sooner in the glow of evening twilight. Look over the sunset point on the horizon from about 45 to 90 minutes after sunset.
• Setting times of the sun, moon and planets in your sky
• Regulus dots the famed backwards question mark of the constellation Leo the

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