By Wednesday, February 12, the moon will form a straight line with two cosmic dogs, Procyon and Sirius.

About 10 degrees to the lower right of the moon is Procyon, known as Little Dog, which is about 11.5 light-years distant in the Canis Minor constellation. Once you find the Little Dog, follow along the same imaginary line southward and the next brilliant star you see is Sirius, known as the Big Dog star, in the constellation Canis Major, 8.8 light-years distant.

Take a peek at the sky tonight and you’ll see a full moon.  A full moon is when the moon and the sun are opposite of each other from an earth perspective.

The full moon officially arrives at 6:53 p.m. EST on Valentine’s Day, Friday, February 14. As the moon rises shortly after sunset, look for a brilliant companion. Representing the heart of Leo the lion, Regulus, a blue-white stellar giant, is about 3.5 times larger than our sun and is a youngin’ when it comes to star lifetimes, at about 300 million years old.

You’ll get another chance on Saturday evening to see the pretty pair as the moon pulls away from Regulus and sinks closer to the horizon.

(Sarah the Leo dances around as she types this)

Over the next couple weeks, look towards the low southeastern sky at dawn and witness the morning star, otherwise known as Venus.  On Saturday, February 15, Venus will shine at an impressive magnitude of -4.9, which is the brightest it can get in our skies.  Venus shines 10 times brighter than Jupiter, which is also visible in our evening skies during February

Wake up early on the 15th or anytime during the following week-you don’t want to miss this because Venus won’t appear this bright and high in Earth’s skies again until 2015.

Celebrate with some homemade donuts!