I'm sure that many of you have noticed the two bright "stars" in the west, first visible just before sunset and then for a couple of hours after. Well, those stars are actually the planets Venus and Jupiter. You can usually tell when it is a planet since planets don't twinkle, whereas stars do. After the Moon, Venus is the second brightest object in the night sky, with Jupiter being the third brightest.
Over the next month, they (and the Earth) are moving such that they will appear closer to each other in the sky, before separating again. There will also be a couple of evenings that the crescent Moon will appear to be very close to either planet. While I hope that you get a chance to look every night, the nights you won't want to miss are:
Sat., 2/25 - Crescent Moon close to Venus
Sun., 2/26 - Crescent Moon close to Jupiter
Mon., 3/12 - Venus and Jupiter appear closest to each other (look the two nights before and after, also)
Sun., 3/25 - Crescent Moon close to Jupiter
Mon., 3/26 - Crescent Moon close to Venus
I put together a little movie so you can see how the planets will move in the sky over the next month. You can find it at
http://people.westminstercollege.edu/faculty/ccline/planets/vjm.html
