Planets Zodiac

PLANETS TO WATCH: Mercury is still below and right of Venus in the west after sunset but becomes harder to find as the week progresses. Mars starts the evening very high overhead, while Saturn begins the evening in the east. Look for Jupiter in the east before sunrise.

THE MOON is new Wednesday and a tiny crescent by the weekend. On Friday, look for the thin crescent near the Pleiades cluster once it gets sufficiently dark. Binoculars will help the view. Evening stargazing will be ideal all week.

THIS WEEK: Starting Tuesday, Mars will be fairly close to another popular star cluster, the Beehive or Praesepe (M44) in Cancer. The zodiac sign's stars are so faint that few people would even know the constellation without its place in the zodiac.

Lie on your back on a lawn chair and train binoculars on Mars. Each day this week starting Tuesday, M44 will be near the red planet. I wouldn't suggest a telescope, because the almost straight-up angle can be frustrating.

The Beehive has about 75 stars visible in binoculars and probably many more. It is more than 500 light years away and, on ideal nights with no light interference, looks like a dim, glowing patch.

DID YOU KNOW? While the 12 zodiac constellations are famous, only five contain a star of first magnitude, with Aldebaran in Taurus the brightest at magnitude 0.86.