Currently shining at its greatest brilliance for this current apparition, this dazzling evening "star" currently appears as a distinct crescent shape in small telescopes, which is growing progressively larger in size as it approaches our Earth.

I pick out North America’s celestial highlights for the week ahead (which also apply to mid-northern latitudes in the northern hemisphere).

A remarkable sight will appear in the southwestern sky an hour after sunset Saturday evening when Venus appears very close to a thin crescent moon. This celestial phenomenon is called a conjunction, which means two or more heavenly bodies appear very close to each other.