A thin crescent moon will be visible low in the southwestern sky after sunset in the coming week. There is a slight chance you’ll see the moon as early as Tuesday night, right after sunset. The moon is in the zodiacal constellation Virgo and not far from the bright star Spica. Spica is below the moon.

More of us will see the moon on Wednesday night. On Thursday night, the moon is better placed in the southern sky and in close proximity to the bright planet Saturn. The two are in the zodiacal constellation Scorpius.

The moon is closer to Saturn the following night.

Starry Nights

With the moon out of play for most of this weekend, the night sky is well suited for stargazing and hunting for nebula.e The Milky Way is now overhead, running from northeast to south. Without a bright moon to interfere, you should have no trouble spotting the Milky Way. Look overhead about 10 p.m., though anytime is a fine.

At 10 p.m., the brightest star overhead is Vega.

Just to the east of Vega is the constellation Cygnus the swan. To many it has a second name, Northern Cross. Take a closer look at this area of the sky and the Milky Way reveals plenty of texture.

The North American nebula, a spectacle appearing in many astronomy books, is big enough to see with your eye, if it were only a lot brighter. With binoculars, Cygnus is a field of uncountable stars and faint nebulae, many clouds of gas surrounded by stars.