An Illinois view of the night sky

We are coming to you this week from the gloriously dark skies of rural west-central Illinois, about an hour north of St. Louis. If you look at a map of Illinois, that peculiar bulge caused by the meandering of the Mississippi River is west-central Illinois putting it north of St. Louis.

As with Southwest Nebraska, west-central Illinois is farm country, and it is flat farmland for as far as the eye can see.

However, in spite of the distance, the sky looks the same as when we look at it in Nebraska. The stars, planets, and constellations still look the same. In fact, if you travel halfway around the world, they would look the same.

And that includes our sky for this week, beginning in the west just after local sunset.

Our old friends, the bright planets Venus and Jupiter, are holding forth in all their glory.

If you are following our weekly Venus watch you have noticed it moving closer to Jupiter.

During the next week watch as Venus lines up in a straight line with Castor and Pollux, the two brightest stars in the next door constellation of Gemini. They will form a straight line on June first and second.

During the next month keep following Venus as it continues toward a spectacular conjunction with Jupiter on June 30.

If we look north another set of old friends are waiting for us. The Big and Little Dippers. Both are standing high above the horizon.

The Big Dipper -- on the left -- has its handle sticking up and slightly to the right while its little brother -- the Little Dipper -- has its handle hanging straight down.

By the middle of June both dipper handles will be pointing straight up and down respectively.

If you follow the curve in the Big Dipper's handle up until you have crossed over the top and are now going down (south that is) find the bright star Arcturus in the kite-shaped constellation Bootes.

Moving to the east, just above the horizon is the great Summer Triangle making its appearance for the year. While all three of the major component stars are still pretty low they can be seen.

The highest and brightest is Vega (25 light years away) with dimmest, and lowest, Altair (17 light years away), to the right, and Deneb (3,000 light years away) is off to the right completing the triangle.

While we are out here, check out the southern sky where we will find Scorpius, the Scorpion just sticking the three stars of his head over the horizon. As an extra added attraction, the planet Saturn is just above and slightly to the left.

They will be together in our early evening sky until the end of August.

While we are waiting for the Gemini/Venus line-up next week, how about another one that will last at least until the end of June. I mean the Venus-Jupiter-Regulus line up that can be seen now. Regulus being the brightest star in Leo, the Lion.

It is the point under the backwards question mark that indicates Leo's head and mane.

The three are currently in the western sky about an hour and a half after local sunset. The line-up is Venus on the right, Jupiter in the middle, and Regulus on the left end.

SKYWATCH: Full moon, Tuesday, June 2. Any substantive viewing will be knocked out for at least three or four days.

NEXT WEEK: Do the stars really not move and more astronomical blathering.