-Thursday the 26th: The moon is new at 9:08 a.m. today as it crosses the imaginary line between Earth and the Sun, so it is lost from sight. The moon will return to view as a thin crescent low in the west at sunset Saturday or Sunday, depending on your visual acuity! 

-Friday the 27th: The planet Venus passes between Earth and the Sun today, so it is lost from sight.  It will return to view as the “morning star” in a few days.

-Saturday the 28th:  Beta Coma Berenices, a star that closely resembles the Sun, stands south of the handle of the Big Dipper. The star is about the same color, brightness, and mass as the Sun. Although it is about 30 light-years away, it is visible to the unaided eye.

-Sunday the 29th: From a major city, you might see no more than a few dozen stars shining through the light pollution. But from the mountains, on a night like tonight, when no moon fills the sky with light, you should see more than a thousand stars at any given time.

-Monday the 30th: One of spring’s most prominent stars, Arcturus, rises early this evening and soars high across the sky during the night. It is part of the constellation Bootes, the herdsman, which stretches to the left of Arcturus and is shaped like an ice cream cone.

-Tuesday the 31st: The zodiac arcs high overhead this evening. This band of constellations outlines the path of the Sun, Moon, and planets across the sky. The “twin” stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux, reign almost directly overhead a couple of hours after sunset.

-Wednesday the 1st: Happy April Fool’s Day…watch out for those pranksters!

-Thursday the 2nd: The Big Dipper is the most recognized star pattern in the world. The dipper’s seven stars are part of the large constellation Ursa Major, the great bear. The bear is well up in the northeast during early evening and wheels high across the north during the night.

“Sailing the skies of spring” is a huge ancient constellation known as Argo Navis, the “ship.”  Unfortunately, you won’t find this nautical constellation on modern star maps as the I.A.U. (International Astronomical Union) exited it out of the club in 1930.  As a result, they “shipwrecked” the poor constellation into four smaller ones, hence Puppis the Stern, Vela the Sails, Carina the Keel and Pyxis the Mariner’s Compass, the last formerly being part of the now-defunct Malus the Mast.  Many civilizations thought of this star group as a ship and some even referred to it as “Noah’s Ark.”  In Greek mythology the Argo was the ship that carried Jason and his Argonauts to recover the Golden Fleece.  Athena supervised its construction by providing a magical prow with the powers of thought and speech to guide the crew, but upon launching, it refused to move until Orpheus charmed it with his Lyre.  Ancient stargazers in Greece and Asia Minor would see this celestial ship sailing westward along the horizon of the Mediterranean Sea as the night progressed.  You too can find this seafaring constellation gliding along the south southwestern horizon on early spring evenings, occupying most of that area of the sky…Fair Winds!