The moon has places to go and celestial bodies to see this coming week, culminating with its breathtaking eclipse of Subaru on April 1. I know it's almost a week away, but this is one celestial event you don't want to miss, even if you're not all that much into astronomy and stargazing.

The moon is constantly on the move in the celestial dome. Every 24 hours it migrates 13 degrees to the east among the stars in a 27-day cycle. We're actually seeing the moon's orbit of the Earth reflected in our sky. It takes nearly the same path along the celestial dome that the sun does — called the ecliptic — but it only takes the moon 27.3 days to make the ecliptic loop while it takes the sun a full year to make the circuit.

As the moon migrates to the east, it regularly passes close by or even eclipses planets that also share that same generally eastward path along the ecliptic. These moon and planet celestial hugs or conjunctions can be really spectacular and I try to keep you up to date with them as best I can.

The moon's orbit around the Earth is also inclined 5 degrees to Earth's orbit around the sun, and this makes the moon oscillate north and south of the ecliptic by as much as 5 degrees as it cruises eastward. The reason I bring it up is that on Saturday night the moon will be far enough north of the ecliptic to cross in front of Subaru, and you don't want to miss the spectacle. Keep your fingers crossed for clear skies Saturday for this special event.

As soon as it's dark enough on April Fool's night, look for the crescent moon in the western sky. The moon will be partially in front of Subaru as darkness sets in. My advice is that you park yourself in a lawn chair and watch Subaru as it gradually emerges from behind the crescent moon.

So what's this Subaru that the crescent moon is going to cover up Saturday night? I'm referring to the Subaru star cluster, the Japanese name for what we call the Pleiades or the "Seven Little Sisters." I know you've seen this before. It's the brightest star cluster in the sky, resembling a mini Little Dipper. The Subaru auto corporation took their name from this bright cluster because if you have dark enough skies and good enough eyes, you can see seven individual stars.

The Subaru car company formed when seven small auto companies merged in the 1950s and they named their new corporation Subaru after the bright star cluster. That's why Subaru's corporate logo, found on the front grill of their cars, is a cluster of stars.

Don't miss this eclipse/conjunction of the crescent moon and the Pleiades, or Subaru if you prefer. Binoculars or a telescope will make the show even better, but even with the naked eye it should be quite a spectacle!

Keep in mind that the moon on Saturday night is 231,000 miles away, but Subaru is so far away that the light that we see from Subaru on Saturday night left that cluster before 1600 AD! The Pleiades are over 410 light years away. That works out to be over 2,300 trillion miles away. That's a lot of mileage for a Subaru!

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and author of the new book, "Pennsylvania Starwatch," available at bookstores and at his Web site: www.lynchandthestars.com