The forest fire smoke from Canada that has enveloped our region with haze in the last several days has made for colorful sunrises and sunsets (and reddish moonlight as well), but it has also limited the ability to stargaze. Bob King remarked that, the other night (which was cloudless but hazy), he could only count six stars in the night sky.
Nonetheless, determined sky watchers can see Venus and Mars very close together in the evening sky after sunset, though Mars will be relatively faint to Venus as it is on the opposite side of the sun. And the upcoming path of the International Space Station is such that there will be five viewing opportunities overnight in our region (10:05 PM, 11:41 PM, 1:18 AM, 2:55 AM, and 4:32 AM), moving from the southwest to the eastern sky.
As always, you can read more from Astro Bob at his blog Astro Bob or at Astro Bob: Celestial happenings you can see from your own back yard.
