Watch for Venus and moon this weekend, plus find Great Square

Predawn sky first. The moon is now moving through the part of the heavens where the planet Venus also resides. You can’t miss them if you look east before dawn in the next few mornings. Venus is the brightest planet. They will be an awesome sight!

The chart at the top of this post shows you how they’ll look Friday morning, November 9.

But don’t just look on Friday. Look for the waning crescent moon and dazzling planet Venus on the mornings of November 10 and November 11, too. Then watch the moon pair up with Saturn before sunrise November 12, capping the peak night of the N. Taurid meteor shower.

Now the evening sky. On these November evenings, you can locate the constellation Pegasus the Flying Horse. The Great Square of Pegasus is an asterism, or noticeable star pattern, within the constellation Pegasus. It consists of a large square pattern on the sky’s dome, with four medium-bright stars marking the corners.

This square pattern in Pegasus is fairly easy to pick out. The Great Square marks the body of the Flying Horse. The star Enif marks the tip of the Horse’s nose. The brightest star in Pegasus is Markab, whose total luminosity is 205 times that of our own sun. The star Alpheratz – although located in the Great Square – is actually part of a neighboring constellation Andromeda the Princess. Once you locate the Great Square, you can use it to find other sky objects. For example, you can use the Great Square to find the Andromeda galaxy.

In the mythology of the sky, Pegasus was born from the blood of the serpent-haired Medusa. After Perseus, a hero of ancient mythology, killed Medusa and cut off her head, some of her blood dripped into the sea. From it, the sea god Poseidon fashioned the Flying Horse. He gave the Horse to Perseus, who rode the Horse while having great adventures.