Stellar Vista Observatory Sky Report
John Mosley
May 2 – 8
The Sky Report is presented as a public service by the Stellar Vista Observatory, a nonprofit organization based in Kanab, Utah, which provides opportunities for people to observe, appreciate and comprehend our starry night sky. Additional information is at www.stellarvistaobservatory.org. Send questions and comments to [email protected].
The planetary action continues to be in the morning sky where, from left to right (or east to west) strung in a line are Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn, although they’re no longer equally spaced as they were last week. Brilliant Venus and Jupiter – the two brightest planets – are especially close on Tuesday morning when they’re separated by a scant 1½ degrees and are a wonderful sight in binoculars.
Venus is moving eastward away from Jupiter, which is relatively stationary against the background stars, and on the next morning they’re separated by 2½°. The gap increases daily and is 7° on the 8th when you’ll no longer see them together in binoculars. Look about an hour before sunrise.
Venus is on the far side of its orbit and is moving around the sun, slowly leaving the morning sky. It won’t be in line with and behind the sun until the end of October, but it slowly becomes progressively lower and harder to see between now and then, and in practice we’ll last see it in August.
Mars and Saturn are much fainter, although still as bright as the brightest stars, and they’re to the upper right of Jupiter and Venus. Mars orbits the sun far faster than Saturn, so it’s leaving Saturn behind and the gap between them will only continue to increase all year.
Elsewhere, Mercury is very low in the west-northwest in evening twilight for the first few days of May. You might see it 45 minutes or so after sunset when it will have an altitude of no more than 8 degrees, so a flat horizon is essential. Binoculars are essential too.
On Tuesday Mercury is 5 degrees to the lower right of the extremely thin crescent moon, at the 5 o’clock position from the moon. The Pleiades Star Cluster is farther to the lower right of Mercury but you’re not likely to see it with the sky so bright. The bright star to the left of the moon is Aldebaran in Taurus.
The moon passes close to two bright star clusters this week, which are M35 in Gemini on Wednesday, when they’re only 2 degrees apart, and the Beehive Cluster in Cancer on Saturday, when they’re 3½ degrees apart, and on both occasions, you’ll see the moon and cluster together in any binoculars. The Beehive should be the state star cluster of Utah, but there’s no such thing. Google can give you the particulars on the star clusters.
And on Saturday the moon is in line with Castor and Pollux, the heads of the Gemini twins; Pollux is closest to the moon which is less than 3 degrees distant. Castor is an additional 4½ degrees to the right.
The Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower peaks on Friday morning when you might see up to a dozen swift meteors an hour coming from the east.
Stay tuned for a partial eclipse of the moon on the night of May 15.