The Vineyard Gazette – Martha’s Vineyard News

With all the media attention around the news about a space ship going around the moon and heading home, you might be looking for it in our evening sky. Well you can’t find it tonight or the nights ahead. You’ve got to rise early in the morning to see it in our sky.

The moon is one week away from New Moon phase and that takes place the end of next week. We have moonless nights ahead. Use it to enjoy the deep dark sky in the coming week. Venus and Jupiter grace our evening skies.

There are morning planets though hard to find. Mars is just coming out of the glare of the bright sun. You’ll need binoculars to find it amid the light of dawn, close to the eastern horizon. If you are lucky, you might also see the planet Mercury. The two planets are fairly close together.

Later in the coming week, the moon will appear too. All three appear together amid the light of dawn on Wednesday morning. Planets will be hard to see, but you won’t miss a thin waning crescent moon.

The moon will also be close, closest to us on April 19. New Moon will be on Friday. Expect extreme spring tides by the end of next week.