The bright waxing gibbous moon will cross over the bright star Antares on Thursday, August 24 at 10 p.m. The time to watch is well before, when you can more easily see the two together. Then watch as the moon slowly approaches the star.

Antares is one of the brightest stars in our summer sky. It is reddish in color and it is the main star in the zodiacal constellation Scorpius. Antares is a stellar giant, one of the biggest and oldest stars we can see in the sky. Look to the South. On a moonless night, Antares is surrounded by a dense cloud of stars. This is a beautiful part of the Milky Way. Astronomers have known for a long time that Antares is actually two stars close together, viewable only with powerful magnification.

Next week, the moon will move closer and closer to the star and then pass over it on Thursday.

The fun part of the occultation is that the star disappears behind the dark side of the gibbous moon. For most of us, that means this is an event fairly easy to watch even without binoculars. Binoculars or anything more powerful will only enhance the event.