The gibbous moon makes its way through our late evening sky. You’ll see the moon rising in the east around 10 p.m. Tonight, the moon resides in the zodiacal constellation Leo and is near the bright planet Jupiter. These two celestial objects will make a pleasant showing together if you are up late.

Jupiter, the solar system’s largest planet, is 418 million miles away and getting closer. Jupiter reaches opposition, closest to the Earth, on February 6.

Early Friday morning of next week you’ll see the moon has advanced into the zodiacal constellation Scorpius and is near the bright planet Saturn. The two are low in the southern sky. They rise in the southeast at about 4 a.m.

Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system. Though Saturn is a giant planet, it is nowhere near as brilliant as Jupiter. Saturn is more than twice the distance from the Earth than Jupiter, at 995 million miles.

Reports continue to come in that Comet Lovejoy is making a good showing in the night sky. The comet is a faint fuzzy “star,” appearing to the east of Orion. It is barely visible at slightly brighter than 5th magnitude. The problem here on the Island has been overcast skies and a persistent bright moon. This should change in the coming week, when hopefully the weather improves. The moon will have advanced along the zodiac and will rise later and later in the evening, making for ideal conditions.

For more information, and a much needed star chart to find the comet, Google the comet’s name and the year 2014 or 2015. We are looking for both local reports and photographs.