Friday night’s gibbous moon appears near the bright planet Jupiter. Both are in the zodiacal constellation Virgo. The bright star Spica, the principal star in Virgo, appears to the east of the moon.

The moon is full on Wednesday night and we call this significant bright phase the Honey Moon, commemorating the season of spring weddings. The moon is in the zodiacal constellation Libra, an area of the sky we associate with the leisure and warmth of summer. The constellations of winter are long gone and now we get to ready ourselves for the warmth of another season. The constellations of summer are up and easy to spot soon after sunset.

Jupiter is the main planet of summer this year. Jupiter will hold court in our summer skies for the months ahead. The planet is the easiest to spot. There is nothing brighter in our night sky.

For anyone with binoculars or a low powered telescope, take a look. Jupiter has four bright moons and sometimes you can spot them if you’ve got a good telescope, the curiosity and the patience to spot at least one, two or three of them. If you see all four you are indeed lucky.