The day-old first quarter moon appears low in the southern sky Friday night. The moon is in the zodiacal constellation Scorpius and not far from the red planet Mars.

Mars is moving ever so slowly towards the zodiacal constellation Sagittarius. The moon will be in Sagittarius Saturday night.

This is night fishing season. Many who are outside in the evenings, participating in the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, will see these two constellations stand as sentinels in the southern sky. Mars is the brightest of celestial objects in the sky and not too far to the west is the bright red star Antares.

Saturn is above the two and together these three bright celestial objects form an elongated triangle. The moon is less than a quarter million miles away from the Earth; Mars is 82 million miles away, closer to us than the sun. Saturn is nearly 930 million miles away from Earth and Antares is 620 million light years away.

Antares is so far away that it takes light going 186,282 miles a second about 620 million years to reach us.