The one-day-old full moon appears low in our southern sky tonight. As night unfolds, the moon moves with the stars along the southern sky, from east to west, where it will set sometime after sunrise tomorrow morning.

The moon resides this weekend in the zodiacal constellation Scorpius, a summer constellation.

Scorpius has a bright red star called Antares. Look at the moon tonight and you’ll see Antares nearby. Scorpius is named for a mythological scorpion. Scorpius is one of the 12 large constellations and it moves ever so slowly across the sky. 

The zodiac can be thought of as a highway where the moon, sun and planets travel across the sky.

The gibbous moon advances into the zodiacal constellation Sagittarius on Sunday night. There is another object of note in Sagittarius, but you’ll have a hard time finding it. Pluto, a dwarf planet, is in proximity but incredibly faint. Pluto is 3.6 billion miles from the sun, while our earth is only 93 million miles.

Meteor Shower Alert

While it is still a week away, there will likely be a new meteor shower on the evening of Friday, May 23, into Saturday morning. This could be a chance to see a truly memorable meteor shower, possibly even bigger than the Perseid Meteor Shower we see annually every August. But comets are by nature unpredictable, so there is no telling for sure about the intensity.