Bumping this b/c I just got in from planet-viewing and have to say "Holy Cow" - Venus is incredibly bright right now. The moon is waning, so the night sky is getting darker and darker. I hope that everyone, wherever you are, gets a chance to see these three planets this week. Actually the next several weeks will be excellent for viewing if you can get away from light pollution.
Other useful internet sites for star watching & information about the night sky include Abrams Planetarium (Michigan State University) , which publishes an easy to learn/follow monthly star calendar, reasonably priced(
www.pa.msu.edu/abrams/SkyCalendar/) and McDonald University (UT Austin) which has a daily radio miniprogram (stardate.org) in addition to print materials (mcdonaldobservatory.org/). I also like Earth and Sky (earthsky.org)
(Astronomy was my favorite elective, next to physics, and it's actually not that hard to learn the various constellations. Scorpio is, of course, my favorite, not just because it's so easy to spot and so outrageously huge.)
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