MAY
1 Full Moon – “Flower Moon”
3 Moon passes Antares, brightest star in Scorpius
4 Moon at apogee (252,177 miles from Earth)
8 Moon passes Pluto
9 Last Quarter
13 Moon passes Neptune and Saturn
14 Moon passes Mars
16 New Moon
17 Moon, at perigee (222,498 miles from Earth)
18 Moon passes Venus
20 Moon passes Jupiter
23 First Quarter Moon passes Regulus, brightest star in Leo
31 Full Moon – “Blue Moon” – passes Antares. The name comes not from the Moon’s color but
from the fact that it’s the second full Moon in a calendar month. This fairly rare phenomenon, which happens roughly every 3 years, gave rise to the expression, “once in a blue moon.”
News of the Worlds
May Day (May 1) marks the midpoint between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice.
Venus (mag.-3.9, brightening to -4.0) continues to dominate the evening sky, setting between 10:30 and 11 PM.On May 1 Venus lies between the two famous star clusters of Taurus, the Pleiades and the Hyades.
Moving eastward into Gemini, it forms a line with the very young crescent Moon and Jupiter (mag.-2.0) on May 18.Our largest planet continues to move westward toward a conjunction with Venus in June.
Mercury goes behind the Sun, reaching superior conjunction May 14, and emerging in the evening sky on the 25th when it shines at mag.-1.1 about 6° above the horizon. By the 30th, it’s climbed to 10° but faded to mag.-0.6. Atmonth’s end it sets 1½ hours after the Sun, a rare opportunity to spot our elusive innermost planet.
The rest of the action is in the predawn sky. Saturn rises around 4:40 AM May 1, progressing to a 3 AM risingby the 31st. Mars (mag.1.3) rises about an hour later. Neptune lies about 8° west of Saturn and can be found with binoculars. All three planets are in Pisces, and the waning-crescent Moon joins them at midmonth.
Uranus disappears behind the Sun this month, reaching conjunction May 22.
The Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower lasts from April 19 to May 28, peaking on the morning of May 6. This shower (like the Orionids in October) comes from debris from Comet Halley. Unfortunately, this year a waning Moon will interfere with viewing – but if you’re getting up early to see the planets, looking east at about 4 AM on may get you a bonus of about a dozen meteors per hour.