We begin the week with the Moon just barely past its first
quarter, after which it will wax in its gibbous phase to
full, which is reached the night
of Friday, May 12. Two days past first quarter, the Moon rides
through apogee,
where it is farthest from the Earth
.
Four first magnitude stars lie within the possible path of the
Moon, which is always within about six degrees of the solar ecliptic plane: Aldebaran in Taurus, Regulus in Leo, Spica in Virgo, and Antares in Scorpius, all of which therefore have the propensity
for being occulted (hidden), depending on where the stars are
relative to the rotation of the inclined lunar orbit. This week it
is Spica's turn, whose occultation unfortunately happens in
daytime. Look though a bit later, after dark on the evening of
Wednesday the 10th, for the Moon to be just to the east of the
bright star. The next two nights the Moon brackets
Jupiter, which lies just north of Zubenelgenubi in Libra. The near-full-Moon will be found
to the southwest of the bright planet the night of Thursday the
11th, then the night of Friday the 12th
to the southeast of it.
Bright Jupiter now really begins to dominate the evening scene.
Rising before sunset, the giant planet is obvious in the southeast
in Libra by the end of twilight, transits the meridian a half hour
before local midnight (12:30 AM Daylight Time), and does not set
until sunrise. High to the west in mid-evening find Saturn in Cancer, the ringed planet not setting
until 1:30 AM. Farther west lies Mars. Situated
beautifully within central Gemini, the red planet goes down just about as Jupiter
transits the meridian. The morning sky of course still holds
brilliant Venus
, whose rising closely tracks the beginning of dawn. The
planet is so bright that it can be seen easily well into morning
twilight.
While anticipating the rising of Venus, look for a few meteors from
the Eta
Aquarid meteor shower the morning of Saturday the 6th, whose
little particles of fluff are the debris of
Halley's Comet. While not all that great a sight from the
northern hemisphere, you might still see a few near dawn radiating
from the direction of the constellation Aquarius.
While the Big Dipper of Ursa Major glides overhead in early
evening, look for the constellations to the south of it, starting
with Canes Venatici (the Hunting
Dogs), then going to Coma Berenices
(Berenices Hair, made mostly of a lovely star cluster), Virgo with Spica, Corvus (the Crow or Raven), the
tail of Hydra, and then enormous
Centaurus, which lies atop Crux, the Southern Cross, which for
mid and far northerners is but an invisible dream.
