So much has changed overhead at night. The transition from winter to spring is complete overhead. With moonless nights this weekend, there are no distractions.

Have you seen the Big Dipper lately. The constellation Big Dipper, also called Ursa Major, is overhead in the evening after dinner. Notice that the two stars in the dipper point to the North Star, also called Polaris.
The handle of the dipper points to the bright orange star Arcturus in the constellation Bootes. Why do we describe this star as orange? To the naked eye, it looks almost like any star. But to see the orange you must look at other stars in the night. Low in the southwestern sky, the bright blue star Sirius, which is near Orion, is clearly blue. Compare Sirius to Arcturus and the orange shade of Arcturus becomes far more noticeable.

A thin crescent moon shows up in the western sky next week. The moon is in the zodiacal constellation Taurus, the bull next Thursday and Friday nights. Taurus is low in the western sky.