Last month's impressive pairing of Venus and the crescent moon will be repeated again this weekend when the 4-day-old crescent climbs past Venus Saturday evening.

Wednesday's new moon marks the start of a new lunar cycle. Our closest neighbor in space will begin to move east, away from the sun, and a very thin crescent can be seen Thursday evening right above the western horizon after sunset.

As the thin crescent moves further away from the sun and the horizon, it will climb to about 8 degrees to the lower right of dazzling bright Venus Friday evening and about 5 degrees to the upper right of Venus Saturday night.

Look for dazzling bright Venus and the crescent moon Saturday evening above the southwestern horizon at 8:15 p.m.

Next month will be the last evening conjunction between Venus and the crescent moon. Our sister planet will return to the morning sky in November. After nine months as the "morning star," it will return to the evening sky next autumn.

Doug Oster writes a blog, "Growing With Doug," exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.