The Night Sky in May 2020

The evening sky in Wolverhampton on 15th of the month at 23:00

MOON PHASES Third (last) quarter 14 May New 22 May First quarter 30 May Full Moon 7 May

Events this month to look out for:

5 Eta-Aquarid meteor shower peak (morning, unfavourable) (see below) 7 Perigree Full Moon in Libra (evening) 9 forms a triangle with and M75 (morning twilight) 12 Moon right of Jupiter and Saturn (morning) 13 Moon left of Jupiter and Saturn (morning) 15 Moon below Mars (morning) 18 Full Moon (Flower Moon) (evening) 21 Mercury below (morning) 22 Venus in conjunction with Mercury (evening twilight) 24 Crescent Moon left of Mercury and Venus (evening twilight) 27 Moon near Beehive Cluster M44 (evening twilight)

In the Northern Hemisphere, the hours of darkness are rapidly departing, in anticipation of the June Summer Solstice, and by late May, some observers will be experiencing permanent astronomical twilight. However, keep looking up because there are still plenty of targets in this month's sky guide to try!

International Space Station (ISS) passes visible this month:

These are listed at the end of this report because the list is quite long. I have only included passes in the evenings up until midnight, many of the passes are in the wee small hours but you can check on the Heavens Above website.

Moon

The Moon is at Perigee, the point of closest approach to Earth, on the 6th, and Apogee, the furthest distance away from Earth as it can be, on the 18th May. The Full Moon is on the 7th when the Moon is in the constellation of Libra. This one is called the Full Flower Moon thanks to the blooms that occur as spring gets going properly. If you’re a pub quizzer, other names include the Hare Moon, the Corn Planting Moon, and the Milk Moon.

Planets Still lots to see for you early risers!

Mercury is an evening object, having passed superior conjunction on the 4th. You should be able to detect it in the NNE sky from the 12th onwards, low in the bright twilight. A good opportunity to locate the planet takes place on the evenings of the 21st and 22nd, when Mercury is close to the much brighter Venus. Mercury reaches its greatest east of the early in June, but at the end of May it sets two hours after the Sun, and so should be readily visible using binoculars. On the evening of the 24th, the young crescent Moon is in the vicinity of the two planets, both of which lie close above the Moon. Venus sets four hours after the Sun at the beginning of May, but at the end of the month sets with the Sun, its inferior conjunction (when it’s between the Earth and Sun) being on the 3rd of June. In binoculars it is possible to detect the crescent phase of Venus, but to see this your binoculars should be mounted on a tripod (a very worthwhile investment). Venus lies near to the crescent Moon and Mercury on the 23rd.

Mars is a morning object increasing from mag +0.4 at the beginning of the month to mag 0.0 at the end. The planet continues to move eastwards from Capricornus into Aquarius, crossing the boundary between the two on the 9th. During the early morning of the 15th, the Moon, just past last quarter, passes a couple of degrees south of Mars in Aquarius in the morning twilight.

Jupiter rises just after midnight at the beginning of May, and before midnight at the month’s end. It may be seen low in the early morning sky on the eastern part of Sagittarius. Jupiter is the brightest object in the morning sky at this time (unless the Moon is in the sky, of course). The waning gibbous Moon may be seen approaching Jupiter on the 12th. Again, looking through binoculars on a tripod you will see the points of light, which are Jupiter’s Galilean satellites, slowly changing their positions on a nightly basis.

Saturn is visible in the morning sky in Capricornus near to its western boundary with Sagittarius, and close to Jupiter in the same part of the sky. The northern surface of the rings are tilted giving a good view from the Earth and are visible through the smallest . If you want to locate , the largest of the planet’s satellites at mag +8, then look West of the planet on the 9th, 10th, 25th and 26th, and to the East of the planet on the 4th, 5th, 20th and 21st. During the morning of the 13th, the gibbous waning Moon lies close to the lower left of Saturn as they are rising at around 2am.

Uranus and are not suitably placed for observation during this month.

Meteor Showers

If you look at the sky in the early morning of the 6th and the 7th from about 2am, you may see an increase in the number of shooting stars visible, until morning twilight becomes too bright. Earth is crossing the path of Halley’s , and tiny particles, debris from this famous ‘dirty snowball’ hit the upper atmosphere as the Eta-Aquarid meteors. The radiant (direction from which the meteors appear to come) together with the twilight at this time of the year that very few Eta-Aquarids are likely to be seen from our location in the northern hemisphere.

Starlink satellites

Not strictly astronomy (more anti-astronomy!) there has been a lot of interest over the last month or so in these. Elon Musk’s plans to launch 12,000 satellites to supply global internet coverage is well publicised. The trails appear when sunlight is reflected off them at the right angle, so they can suddenly appear and disappear. The Heavens Above website can tell you when you might see them. Have a look at our social media pages for examples of images that we have taken.

ISS passes listing (evenings only) in May source: https://www.heavens-above.com/

Check out the website for the Wolverhampton Astronomical Society (www.wolvas.org.uk) where you can see details of lectures, observation sessions and images we have taken.

Given the current situation regarding the coronavirus in the UK, and following the latest Government advice to avoid all unnecessary social interaction for the foreseeable future, the Society regrets to announce that all talks and observing events have been cancelled for the rest of the season.

We have an exciting line up of speakers for our new season starting in September, which we hope can go ahead as planned, and we will do our best to rearrange the cancelled talks for the future.

In the meantime, we wish you clear skies and a safe and healthy 2020. Please keep an eye on our Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/wolvasuk) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/wolvasuk) accounts for the latest updates and news.