Thursday night, look to the southwest around 6:15 p.m. If you have a clear sky, you will see ever-brilliant Venus two degrees above the horizon. Above Venus, 5½ degrees away, is Mercury.
Venus is leaving our evening sky, but on Monday night, Mercury is at its greatest eastern elongation (distance) from the sun of 19.6 degrees and is at its most favorable viewing position above the western horizon after sunset.
At 6:15 that night, Mercury is 7 degrees above the horizon. There is more. The two-day-old thin crescent moon is only 3 degrees to the left (south) of Mercury. Have binoculars handy to help you find these objects.
The moon remains a helpful pointer. On Wednesday night the four-day-old moon is just two degrees to the left (east) of bright red Antares at the heart of Scorpius the Scorpion. Scorpius is low in the southwest and is leaving our evening skies.
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The dim constellation Capricornius (sometimes spelled Capricornus) the Sea Goat is directly south at 8 p.m., approximately 35-45 degrees above the horizon.
A sea goat is a mythical creature that is half goat, half fish. Capricornius looks like a flattened bowl with a wide mouth facing north and a pointed bottom facing south.
Capricornius has several telescopic objects of interest, but its main fame comes from it being a member of the zodiac, the narrow band through which the sun and the planets pass on their journeys about the sky.
