Courtesy of EarthSky
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Our sky chart shows the waxing crescent moon and the star Aldebaran as they appear in North America. However, the moon and Aldebaran can be seen from pretty much all over the world this Friday evening.
As seen from the eastern part of the globe – Asia, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand – the moon will be closer to the Pleiades cluster than to Aldebaran, the brightest star in the constellation Taurus the Bull. Nonetheless, simply look for the nearest bright star to tonight’s moon, and that will be Aldebaran.
The ruddy color of Aldebaran really stands out in a dark country sky or in binoculars. Any reddish star that you can see with the unaided eye is an old, bloated star in the autumn of its years. Astronomers also expect our middle-aged sun to swell into a red giant star when it reaches old age in another 5 billion or so years.
Does this mean that all red-colored stars have one foot in the grave? No, just those that you can see with the unaided eye. There are billions of red dwarf stars in our Milky Way galaxy that are still in the heyday of youth, though they are all too small and faint to see without an optical aid.
Top tips for using ordinary binoculars for stargazing
This Friday night, look for Aldebaran – the red giant star that you can see – in the vicinity of the moon!
Aldebaran: Fiery Eye of the Bull
Pleiades: Famous Seven Sisters
Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA/JPL
U.S. Naval Observator Astronomical Information center
The York County Astronomical Society
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