Looking West, where the Sun set earlier, the bright object low in the sky is Venus. The bright star in the West is Sirius, and above it, and almost straight overhead, the red object is Mars.. To the right of Sirius, more to the West, you’ll see the three belt stars of Orion. From there, you should be able to find the Hyades’ “V” shape to the upper right of Orion.

Here is a list of things you should be able to see in Spring with just ordinary binoculars (7 x 35).

You can use this diagram as a guide. It can be downloaded at skymaps.com. The orientation for the map is set for South, with the middle of the circle representing straight overhead. Turn the map upside down when looking North.

The larger the blob on the map, the brighter the object will appear in the sky–note the magnitude legend at the bottom right of the map. Contrary to intuition, the higher the magnitude number, the dimmer the object appears.

ISS (International Space Station passes)

Will the ISS make a pass over Richmond tonight?