The bright planet fairly high in the southwestern sky this month is Jupiter. Jupiter is near the zodiacal constellation Scorpius, one of the southern-most zodiacal constellations.

Jupiter isn’t hard to find if you’ve got a good view. Though it isn’t as bright as the planet Venus, which left our sky last month, Jupiter is the easiest planet to find. No star or planet comes close. As the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter commands attention.

Look a short ways to the east of Jupiter and the ringed-planet Saturn resides in the zodiacal constellation Sagittarius. Look even farther to the south and east and the bright red planet Mars resides in the zodiacal constellation Capricornus.

We’ve got three bright planets hanging low in our southern sky. Each one of them is marching towards the setting sun, eventually. Only Mars seems to be marching eastward at a slow pace. Because it is fairly close to the Earth, Mars is following behind the Earth in its orbit around the sun.