Astronomy news for the week starting Friday, May 9, 2014.
The Moon swells early in the week in its waxing
gibbous phase, which is terminated at full Moon on Wednesday, May 14, during
daylight hours in North America, so we see it rise prior to full
the night of Tuesday the 13th, then just after full the following
night, though it's rather hard to tell the difference. It then
diminishes in the waning gibbous phase as
it heads toward third quarter the middle
of next week. The evening of Saturday the 10th, the Moon will
appear to the west of Mars, while the
following evening it will find itself to the east of the red
planet, roughly between it and the star Spica in Virgo. Our companion then heads toward Saturn, appearing to
the west of the ringed planet the evening of Tuesday the 13th,
then to east of it the following night. The juxtaposition of the
Moon and the two bright planets allows an easy sense of the motion
of the Moon over the course of only a couple hours.
The evening sky is glorious with planets, as noted by the lunar
passages. As darkness closes in, Jupiter shines
to the west (not setting 'till just after midnight) while Mars
glows to the south and Saturn to the southeast. Even little Mercury begins
to make an appearance low in western dusk. As Jupiter goes down,
Mars is to the southwest, Saturn to the south. You can watch the
latter two until near the beginning of twilight, when Mars finally
sets. But as it drops out of sight, Venus rises, remaining
visible until the glowing dawn takes it away. On Thursday the
15th, Venus
passes just over a degree south of Uranus, though
the little event is near-impossible to see. The big event
involves Saturn, which passes opposition to the Sun on Saturday
the 10th, when it rises at sundown, sets at sunup, and crosses
the meridian to the south at true
midnight (1 AM Daylight Time).
The Ship Argo is sailing off to
the southwest, to be replaced in the south in the evening by Centaurus, only its northern stars
visible in mid-latitudes. Fix your attention then to the north
and to Leo with its prominent "Sickle" that ends in Regulus. To the east of the Sickle
is a prominent triangle that features bright, second magnitude, Denebola as the Tail of the
roaring Lion. Further north, the Big Dipper is crossing the sky.
