A thin crescent moon hovers low in the southwestern sky Friday night. Can you see it? The moon is two days from the New Moon phase and it resides in the zodiacal constellation Virgo. Take another look and you’ll see the bright planet Jupiter nearby. Jupiter is right next to the bright star Spica. Spica is the principal star in Virgo.

The moon moves up along side another planet in the coming week. On Tuesday night, the moon appears near Saturn. Saturn is not as bright as Jupiter but it is the brightest celestial object in the southern sky. Saturn resides near the zodiacal constellation Scorpius. Use the moon to find this celebrity planet.

Saturn received a lot of media attention last week. Cassini, a man-made space probe, finished its 13-year mission to Saturn by doing a nose dive into the planet’s outer atmosphere.

It is still a challenge to comprehend that Saturn is so readily visible to all of us. Yet the planet is over 900 million miles away.