Look up! Venus and Jupiter glow bright this weekend

There will be no meteor showers this weekend, or ring-of-fire solar eclipses, but if you head outside around twilight, you’ll get an excellent view of Jupiter and Venus around a slender crescent moon.

As night begins to fall on Saturday and Sunday evenings, look to the sky to find Jupiter in the same vicinity as the new moon. Then look below the moon to find Venus.

The planets will look like white points of light, not so different than stars, but they will be bright enough to be visible even in a light-polluted city like Los Angeles without the aid of a telescope.

Photos: Amazing images from space

All you need to enjoy the show is to step outside and look up.

You can use the sky map above, provided by Sky & Telescope to help guide your viewing.

This week has been a dramatic one for sky watchers, with the Eta Aquarid meteor shower petering out toward the earlier part of the week, and the ring of fire annular solar eclipse that was visible from remote parts of Australia and the South Pacific on Thursday. (Many of us watched online)

There was also the unexpected fireball that streaked across the sky in England and Wales.

But this Mother’s Day weekend, we can all relax with some simple, straightforward but always-inspiring sky watching.

Happy viewing!