The Moon is not easy to miss in the south east these days (rainy nights aside), as it approaches its Full Moon phase on the 29th. During the daylight hours it will pass above Neptune, which by nightfall will be 4 degrees (3 fingers at arms length) to its right and little lower.
On the 31st, if you look a little less than the width of your fist (10 degrees) to the left of the Moon, you may be able to spot Uranus.
Neptune is a very small blue disk, Uranus brighter and a little larger. To actually see the disks requires a telescope, but the colours are evident in any binoculars. If you find something blue in the area that twinkles less than normal, it’s probably one or the other.
Having said that, it’s unlikely you’ll find either if you look on those dates, because the Moon is so overwhelmingly bright that it washes out the sky around it. If you’re determined to check these two planets off your list, wait a few days or a week and scan the part of the sky the Moon was in at the time. With a little patience, they can be found. If not, both planets will be well placed in the southern sky for the rest of the year, so we should be able to have numerous opportunities to catch a glance when the Moon is out of the way.
Maybe I shouldn’t be so dismissive of the Moon. It’s brightness can be annoying if you’re trying to see other stuff in the sky, but without it, it’s questionable if anyone would be here to complain.
The Moon was formed when a Mars-sized rock hit a very young Earth, throwing off a large molten blob which would eventually form into our satellite. Had this chance event not happened, our tides would be a third of what they are now, our days would be six hours long with winds four times the strength and the stable tilt that gives us our seasons would have become erratic millennia ago. Life would not have evolved as we know it, if at all.
As annoyed as I can get at times, I guess it’s better to have to work around the Moon to view the skies from my back yard, than have no back yard at all.
