Venus the “Star” Attraction in May   

 

 

   Venus, with its brilliant white colour, reaches its peak appearance dominating the western evening sky after sunset in May.  The planet moves rapidly from the constellation of Taurus (the Bull) into Gemini (the Twins) throughout May.  Venus appears so bright, shining at a magnitude of -4.1, because the clouds surrounding the planet reflect 60 percent of the sunlight striking it.  The clouds of Venus, even though they look deceivingly lovely, are made up of mostly carbon dioxide, nitrogen and sulphuric acid droplets.

 

   At the beginning of May a telescope will reveal Venus with a waning (shrinking) gibbous phase.  As the month progresses you will note that Venus’ phase will decrease to just 55 percent illuminated by the end of May.

 

   Once the sky becomes dark on May 9 use binoculars to see Venus a mere 1.7 degrees north of the star cluster M35 in Gemini.  A great photo opportunity arises on May 19 when the thin crescent moon joins up with Venus after the sun has set (as happened last month).

 

   Saturn appears very high in the southwest after sunset in the constellation of Leo.  The yellow colour of Saturn is brighter (magnitude 0.5) than any of the stars around it making the planet easy to spot.  The first quarter moon will be seen 4 degrees east of Saturn on May 22.

 

   Jupiter, in the constellation Ophiuchus, rises just after midnight in the southeast at the beginning of May.  Its brilliant yellow colour at magnitude -2.6 makes it easy to identify. The bright orange-red star Antares in Scorpius can be seen to the right of Jupiter.  The waning (shrinking) gibbous moon can be seen just below Jupiter and Antares in the early morning of May 5 and again on June 1, about 2 hours before the sun comes up.

 

   May this year will host 2 Full Moons as calculated using Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). The first full moon is May 2 at 6:09 a.m. EDT and the second occurs on May 31 at 9:04 p.m. EDT.  The second full moon in a calendar month is referred to as a “Blue Moon”. On average, there will be 41 months that have two Full Moons in every century, so you could say that once in a Blue Moon actually means once every two-and-a-half years.

 

 

Clear Skies

Ted Bronson