Moon Crosses the Pleiades

On Friday evening, December 13, the orbital motion of the bright, nearly full moon will carry it through the Pleiades star cluster (aka Messier 45, Subaru, and the Seven Sisters) for some parts of the world. While bright moonlight overwhelms fainter objects, viewing the encounter during evening twilight, especially through binoculars, will make a pretty, and fascinating, sight. Skywatchers in Europe and Africa will see the moon among the Pleiades’ scattered stars. Observers in Asia and the Americas will have to settle for seeing the moon shining to their upper right (or celestial west) and lower left (or celestial east), respectively.