Hopping down the Milky Way plus this week’s sky

Tips for mapping a path through the winter Milky Way? Since the Milky Way is now stretched across from the SE up to the NW, find a basic star map and draw a line from bright Sirius up through bright Capella at the top of the sky on and down through Deneb low on the NW horizon. You’ll also find Cassiopeia and Perseus along this line. Looking for the Celestial Equator? try this: Pegasus on the west, Leo on the East, Orion in the Middle. Westernmost star in Orion’s belt marks the Celestial Equator – and divides the North celestial hem from South celestial hem. A tip: East and West are divided by the plane created by the line stretching from overhead to beneath your feet as you look direct south . You will find it by observing the sun’s direction at noon. To do that take notice of a particular buildings, trees, generally to the south as a reference point. Also, longer days, shorter nights. The days they are a-growin’! This week you’ll see Jupiter in the evening, Saturn in the morning, both high in the east at Sunset and at sunrise, respectively.