This month, the average temperature in Wausau starts at 47 degrees on the 1st and rises to 62 degrees by the 30th; so as it gets warmer, be sure to step outside and enjoy the wonders in the night sky.

Headlining this month is something called an occultation.

An occultation happens when one object in the sky blocks another one from sight.

In this case, a lovely crescent moon will pass over the Pleiades (the star cluster also known as the Seven Sisters).

You can watch this event in the western sky in the early evening hours.

The Seven Sisters can be found by looking for the constellation Taurus, the bull…they’re riding on his back.

There will be some great planets to watch for in the evening hours, too.

Saturn will be high in the southern sky inside Leo, the lion; and Mars will be in the west.

Remember that you can see Saturn’s rings and moons with a pair of good binoculars…and with that same pair of binoculars, you can see Jupiter’s moons.

Jupiter will be a good one for early risers: it’ll be in the southern sky in the hour before sunrise; and Venus, the morning star, will rise toward the east just before the sun.

For the more seasoned stargazer, there’s the Lyrid meteor shower, which will be on the 21st and 22nd.

I say this is one for seasoned stargazers because there won’t be very many meteors in this shower and you’ll have to watch closely and be patient.

Also, an almost full moon will make these scarce meteors difficult to see, but if you’d like to take a look, the radiant of this shower (the place where it looks like the meteors are coming from) is between the constellations Lyra and Hercules.

Keep in mind that the best time to watch a meteor shower (the time you’ll see the most meteors) is in the wee hours of the morning.

If you need help finding any of these constellations or planets, you can get a star map from the Wausau West High School Planetarium Website by clicking on the link below this article and then clicking “star map” in the left-hand column.