Over the coming weeks, NASA will be updating us on what to look out for in that vast open window above our heads.
The appearance of four familiar planets strung out in a line is one of the highlights of April.
The spectacle begins to take shape in the early part of this month with the appearance of Venus, Mars, and Saturn in the southeast before sunrise.
During the middle of the month, Jupiter rises an hour before dawn to make a quartet of planets. Jupiter will be moving higher in the sky before sunrise, making it easier to see the bright planet.
NASA focuses on the Big Dipper, a pattern of bright stars in the northern sky, in its latest update.
The space agency points out that one of its stars is really two. Or, actually, six.
It explains that what looks like a single bright star here, midway along the Dipper's handle, is actually a double star: Mizar and Alcor.
If you can see them with your own eyes, NASA wants you to peer at the scene through a pair of binoculars. The two star systems are around a light-year apart, and 85 light-years away from our own solar system.
Mizar and Alcor appear to be a close pair of two stars, but in fact there are six. Mizar and Alcor are in the Big Dipper in April, where what at first appears as one star is a six-star system.
Many astronomy apps use augmented reality to help you identify planets, stars, and galaxies, so you can get more out of your skywatching adventures.
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