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harder to spot Venus because it sits deep in the glow of evening twilight and follows the sun beneath the horizon less than one hour after sunset.
• On the other hand, you should have little trouble spotting the moon and Jupiter. The moon sinks beneath the horizon after nightfall and Jupiter stays out till early evening. But all three - the moon, Jupiter and Venus - will be highest up at dusk and will plunge downward as dusk deepens into darkness.
• If you have a telescope, you may want to seek out Jupiter's four major moons as soon as darkness falls - or even at dusk. The view of Jupiter's moons is usually better when Jupiter is higher in the sky. From North America, you'll most likely see three moons at nightfall. In their order going outward from Jupiter tonight, these moons are Europa, Ganymede, Callisto. If you're lucky, you might catch the fourth moon - Io - on the opposite side of Jupiter, just before it swings behind Jupiter.
• While you're at it, use binoculars or the telescope to check out the moon. Chances are that you'll get an eyeful of earthshine - that soft glowing luminescence lighting up the nighttime side of the moon. If you could see the Earth from the moon, you'd see that the Earth is just past full and in a brilliant waning gibbous phase.
• When can you see earthshine on a crescent moon?
• After the sun sets this Saturday, May 11, look low in the west for the moon, Venus and Jupiter - the second-brightest, third-brightest and fourth-brightest heavenly bodies, respectively, after the sun.
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