This is a month for evening planets. As soon as the sun sets, you’ll be able to spot a small red object in the eastern sky. This is Mars, the red planet. Mars will continue rising and moving toward the west during the night.

Saturn rises about 8 p.m. You should be able to easily spot it in the southeast by 9. In binoculars, you probably won’t see Saturn’s rings, but it will appear somewhat as an oval. The rings will be visible, however, even in small 2” telescopes.

Venus will be low in Western sky after twilight and will be higher in west as the month progresses. It’s not hard to spot Venus. After the Moon, it’s the brightest object in the night sky.

The dominant constellation this month is Ursa Major, with its well know star pattern, the Big Dipper.

Look at the middle star in the handle of the Big Dipper. Do you see one or two stars? Ask your children how many stars they see.

This star was used thousands of years ago as a vision test. If your child only sees one star, they might need glasses. If you can see only one star, you might need your glasses prescription changed. Someone with good eyesight will see two stars -- the bright star Mizar and its smaller companion Alcor.

Answer to last month’s trivia question:

Q: Which moon of Saturn has a feature called "cold faithful?"

A: Saturn's moon, Enceladus. Enceladus has several geysers (nicknamed "Cold Faithful"), not unlike the Old Faithful geyser at Yellowstone Park.

The geysers are spewing water and ice into Saturn's "E" ring. Recently salt was detected in the geysers by the Cassini spacecraft. This suggests that there may be an ocean underneath Enceladus' frozen surface.

This month’s trivia question:

Q: True or False: There is a group of stars called "The Teapot" which has a puff of steam streaming from its spout?