• Early morning risers will be rewarded with a glimpse of the waning crescent moon in close vicinity to the Gemini twin stars, Castor and Pollux. Although Castor and Pollux are respectfully bright stars, they pale in contrast to the dazzling morning planets, Venus and Jupiter. Venus - the third most brilliant celestial object after the sun and moon - shines in front of the constellation Cancer, not far from the Beehive star cluster. Jupiter, the fourth brightest celestial object, beams in front of the constellation Taurus the Bull.
• Three bright objects in front of three

different constellations
• Cancer? Here's your constellation
• Taurus? Here's your constellation
• Meanwhile, tomorrow morning's moon will be in front of the constellation Gemini. So you can use the moon, Venus and Jupiter to locate three constellations of the Zodiac before sunrise tomorrow. The sun, moon and planets travel in front of the zodiacal constellations, and always reside on or near the ecliptic - the Earth's orbital plane projected onto the sphere of stars. Because the planets orbit the sun on nearly the same plane that Earth does, the ecliptic serves as a great reference for finding planets.
• What is the ecliptic?
• Venus and Jupiter will remain in the morning sky for the rest of the year. Whereas Venus will sink closer to sunrise, Jupiter will move farther away from the rising sun. Earth is currently catching up with Jupiter in our smaller, swifter orbit

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