The moon glows and Saturn shines

In the early evening hours of Sunday, just after sunset, look low in the west and find the thin crescent of the waxing moon. Watch over the next couple of nights as the crescent grows and the moon falls further behind the sun into the night sky. Notice that there is a faint glow from the unlit side of the moon. This is sunlight being reflected from Earth back to the moon and then back to your eyes and is called "earth shine." On Tuesday the moon's growing crescent will be very near the Pleiades star cluster and will make a magnificent sight.

Saturn continues to be a wonderful evening target as it is high in the east as soon as darkness falls. You cannot miss it — it is the brightest star in that portion of the sky. It will spend the month in the constellation Leo, very near the star Regulus, the heart of Leo. Look above Regulus for the Sickle asterism. These stars make up the head and mane of Leo the Lion. The ancient Babylonians saw Leo as a great dog who accompanied their caravans. To the Chinese the Sickle was part of their Rain Dragon, and to the Chukchi people of Siberia it was a sleeping woman.

Use your binoculars to look at Saturn's rings and then observe Regulus. If your sky is dark and your eyes are good, you should be able to see the companion star just to the northwest.

— Rodney Ash, special to The Seattle Times

Rodney Ash is a member of Seattle Astronomical Society, www.seattleastro.org. Star Watch appears in Northwest Weekend the first Thursday of each month.