4 bright stars form a giant 'diamond' in the May night sky: Here's how to find it

With the evening moon appearing as a crescent phase for much of this upcoming week, we now have an opportunity to view some of the fainter sky objects that now occupy our spring evening sky. Looking high overhead and toward the south just after nightfall, there is a broad star pattern formed by four stars. The near-third magnitude star, Cor Caroli (in the constellation of Canes Venatici the Hunting Dogs), is the faintest of the four that comprise a large diamond frame that can be found high in the sky and due south at around 10 p.m. local daylight time. The other stars in the diamond are second magnitude Denebola (marking the tail of Leo, the Lion ), first magnitude Spica (the spike of wheat in the hand of Virgo ) and zero-magnitude Arcturus (in Boötes the Herdsman ). Remember that the lower the figure of magnitude, the brighter the star. And if you ever wanted to get a good visual idea of star magnitudes , here's some celestial numerology: in this four-star pattern, we have that part of the magnitude scale running from 0 to 3. In his popular constellation guide, "The Stars — A new Way to See Them," author Hans A. Rey (1898-1977) called it the "Virgin's Diamond," after the constellation of Virgo, though others refer to it simply as "The Great Diamond." But it's not sanctioned. . . Of course, the Diamond is not an official constellation but is an asterism. …