Tomorrow night's first quarter moon appears in the zodiacal constellation Virgo, close to the right star Spica. Spica is one of the brightest stars of late spring and early summer. Use the moon to much valued celestial object. Spica is so large compared to our sun and voluminous too. The star is really two stars, one seven times bigger than our sun and the other is four times.

Their brilliance, hard to imagine, is 12,000 times brighter than our sun. The star is 250 light years away, one of the farthest bright stars in our sky.

Gus Ben David is an Island institution. For 30 years he has directed Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary. Anyone walking the trails gets a sense of a wild place that is tended by loving hands. The open grassland is mowed at strategic times of year. Waterfowl find refuge in the small duck pond at the far end of the property.

It takes a warm-blooded naturalist to run a den of cold-blooded creatures. Gus and Shane Ben David’s World of Reptiles is now in its third year. These are the animals that will never be friendly, but they do get along. They range in size from a 21-foot, 230-pound reticulated python down to a bullfrog from Cape Cod.

Enjoy these mostly moonless nights in the week ahead. The stars and even the Milky Way are within reach, as long as the skies are clear.

Without a moon in the sky, nights do get dark. You can see the Milky Way, that ribbon of billions of stars rising in the east.  The waving ribbon starts above the horizon in the northeastern sky, rises up high into the sky and extends down to the southeast.

If you are out looking for fireworks on Thursday, July 4th evening, make sure you look up for stars. The stage is set for summer stars. The bright orange star Arcturus is nearly overhead. You know you've found it when you look up and see the Big Dipper. The handle stars in the Big Dipper point to Arcturus.

Look for Spica, the brightest star low in the southern sky. The star is the main star in the zodiacal constellation Virgo.

Tomorrow night's full moon is in the constellation Sagittarius, the southernmost zodiacal constellation. The full moon doesn't get any more southerly and close to the southern horizon on nights around the summer solstice.

This should make sense as we already know the sun is now at its highest in the sky, in the zodiacal constellation Taurus, near Gemini.

On Sunday night the gibbous moon appears close to the bright star Spica in the zodiacal constellation Virgo. Spica is one of the largest and thus brilliant stars in our night sky making our own sun as little beach ball by comparison. Spica is 12,000 times brighter than our own sun and it is seven times the size.

And Spica is far away too. This bright star is 260 light years away from our sun. For comparison, the bright Vega which is now rising in the East is only 25 light years away.

We are now in the month when daylight prevails in buckets. With the first day of summer only two weeks away, we are experiencing late sunsets and early sunrises. If you like the night sky, it is now at a premium.

Twilight sticks around well after 8 p.m. and dawn comes at its earliest around 4 o'clock.

All our visible planets are in the morning sky and it is an impressive arrangement. A thin crescent moon appears right next to the red planet Mars on Sunday morning. The two are only a few degrees apart. It is possible you will see the bright planet Jupiter rising in the east at twilight. Jupiter will be more readily visible in the weeks and thus months ahead. But even better, note that the planet Saturn is a good deal to the right of Mars and to the south. Saturn is in proximity to the zodiacal constellation Aquarius.

Yesterday's full moon, the Honey Moon, will continue to dominate our evening skies through this weekend. The moon is brilliant. There are no planets in our evening sky and thus the Moon is the commander and chief. The moon moves through the southern most zodiacal constellations Sagittarius this weekend, thus it remains low in our southern skies.

Use these evenings to familiarize yourself with the stars of summer coming quickly.