• You'll have to stay up fairly late to see the waning gibbous moon rising with the star Spica tonight. Then you'll have to wait another hour or more before the planet Saturn follows the moon and Spica above the horizon. Or you can wake up early tomorrow to see the threesome higher up in south to southwest sky before dawn. (From the South

ern Hemisphere, look overhead or high in the northern sky.)
• Our chart shows the eastern sky for mid-northern North American latitudes somewhere around 11:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight tonight. (The moon, Spica and Saturn will rise earlier at southerly latitudes.) The sky scene will look similar at late night for all mid-northern latitudes, except that the moon's position will differ somewhat from that on the chart. In Europe and Asia, for instance, the moon will be higher up above Spica.
• Spica: Brightest star in the constellation Virgo
• For most places worldwide, the moon rises first, followed by Spica and then Saturn. In North America, the moon and Spica rise at about the same time. In South America, the Pacific Coast of Central America and Mexico, you may even see the moon occult - or cover over - Spica sometime tonight. (From Acapulco, Mexico, for instance, the moon covers over Spica from 11:21:33 to 11:57:44 p.m. local time on February 28, 2013.) For the precise rising time of the moon, Spica and Saturn into your sky, check the links on our almanac page.
• Saturn rises in the east at about the time that the brilliant planet Jupiter sits low in the western sky. You can't miss Jupiter at nightfall, as it's the brightest star-like object in the evening sky and high up at nightfall.
• February 2013 guide to the five visible planets
• Ater they rise, the moon, Spica and Saturn travel westward across the sky during the night. They do this for the same reason that the sun moves from east to west during the day. It's because the Earth spins from west to east on its rotational axis.

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