Tonight’s full moon is the bay scallop moon and it appears in the zodiacal constellation Aries. It rises in the east when the sun sets in the west.

Aries, the ram, is one of the least visually distinct constellations in the zodiac. It is made up of a less than six stars in fairly close proximity to each other. Star charts often portray the small number of stars as the ram’s head. Another constellation south of Aries and south of the Moon is Cetus, the whale.

Like a whale, Cetus is large and its star field extends east and west quite a distance. It is a constellation far larger than Aries, and the fourth largest constellation in the sky.

This weekend the moon moves into the zodiacal constellation Taurus, the bull. Advancing through the zodiac, on Tuesday night the moon enters the zodiacal constellation Gemini.

Gemini is a constellation depicting twins, and we associate it with winter. Look for two bright stars above the moon and you’ll be seeing Castor and Pollux.

Gemini is one of the richest areas of the sky for stars in the Milky Way. Take another look on a moonless night and you can see the Milky Way running between and including Taurus and Gemini.

What is also striking about this area of sky are the dark areas close to those clouds. The Milky Way is made up of both bright clouds and dark clouds. Astronomers call those dark areas coal sacks. They are dark matter, made up mostly of stars yet born and stars that are extinguished.