See Venus, the moon and fiery star Aldebaran form a dawn triangle this weekend

Sky map showing a predawn view looking east with labeled celestial objects: Jupiter near the eastern horizon, Venus shining brightly above, Aldebaran glowing orange to the right, and a thin crescent moon above Venus. The three form a wide triangle in the morning sky.

One of the brightest and most colorful stars in the sky and the most brilliant planet are on stage in the early morning dawn sky this weekend and will be joined by the moon on Monday morning. The star in question is Aldebaran, a first-magnitude star that shines with a distinct orange hue and marks the right eye of Taurus, the Bull.

The brilliant planet is, of course, Venus, which outshines Aldebaran by almost five magnitudes or a light ratio difference of almost 100-fold. At this particular moment in time, both star and planet can be seen roughly one-quarter of the way up from the eastern horizon, roughly 45 minutes before sunrise.