If you are outside Friday night at 10 p.m. or later, take a peek towards the southeast and look for the rising bright gibbous moon. The moon won’t get very high, as it is in one of the southern most constellations in the Zodiac, the constellation Scorpius. Look for Saturn, the bright planet nearby. Saturn is nestled between the constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius. It is just below the peculiar large constellation Ophiuchus.

Saturn will stay in this area of the sky through the coming summer, and the moon will pass by once a month. The ringed planet has been in the news a lot lately, as one of the manmade visiting satellites, Cassini, continues to feed scientists with all kinds photographs and scientific data. Cassini’s mission is about to end.

Saturn reaches opposition on June 14, which means it is as close as it gets this year. This week the planet is 864 million miles away. By the end of this month, Saturn will be 837 million miles away and slightly brighter.

That bright planet rising in the eastern sky before sunrise is Venus. Venus is moving through the zodiacal constellation Pisces. If you could see into the dark reaches of space you’d also notice Venus is in the same part of the morning sky as the planets Mercury and Uranus. You might be able to find Mercury without binoculars, but Uranus is just too faint to see without one.