Sky & Telescope - May 2019 - 46

MAY 2019 OBSERVING
Sun, Moon & Planets by Fred Schaaf
To find out what's
visible in the sky
from your location,
go to skypub.com/
almanac.

The Planets Perform
A dwarf planet reaches opposition in May, while the two gas
giants march towards their own oppositions later on.

here are some distinctive solar sysnitude 1.6. By late May the magnitude
ALL NIGHT
tem highlights to catch this month.
of Mars has faded to a meager 1.8. This
Ceres, the largest asteroid and the
Every year, Jupiter and Saturn enter the
slightly ruddy world sets more than 3
only one to also be classiﬁed as a dwarf
evening sky and get brighter and bigger
hours after the Sun as May begins but
planet, reaches opposition on May 28th.
as they get close to opposition. But this
less than 2½ hours as the month ends.
It's then on the border of Ophiuchus
year, for the ﬁrst time in almost two
Mars shrinks to less than 4″ wide in
and Scorpius, retrograding into the
decades, these two gas giants march
telescopes this month, but binoculars
claws of Scorpius. See page 48 for more.
towards their climactic showings of
and telescopes show the ﬁne sight of
the year just one constellation apart,
Mars passing near the big open cluster
EARLY EVENING TO DAWN
approaching next year's quasi-conM35 at the feet of Gemini a few days
Jupiter makes a grand entrance onto
junction in May and historically close
after mid-month. Mars shines on the
the sky's evening stage a little earlier
conjunction in December.
northeast edge of the cluster after suneach night in May. The mighty planet
Other special solar system sights of
set on May 19th.
brightens from magnitude -2.5 to -2.6
May include the opposition of Ceres
as it nears its opposition, which occurs
Mercury may be glimpsed low in
and a close encounter of Mars with the
on June 10th, and telescopes show its
the west-northwest in the Sun's afterbright open cluster M35.
majestic, intricately patterned disk
glow, far to the lower right of Mars, on
At nightfall, Mars is an extra 2ndgrow from 43″ to almost 46″ in equatothe last few days of the month. Visibilmagnitude light, ﬁrst in Taurus and
rial diameter. Jupiter-rise occurs more
ity starts after Mercury passes through
then in Gemini. As the month prothan 3 hours after sunset as May starts
superior conjunction with the Sun
gresses, brightening Jupiter is rising earbut roughly 40 minutes after sunset as
on May 21st.
lier and earlier in
tqu These scenes are drawn for near the middle of North America
evening twilight.
(latitude 40° north, longitude 90° west); European observers should
Moon
Dusk, May 6 - 8
Brightening SatMay 8
move each Moon symbol a quarter of the way toward the one for the
45 minutes after sunset
urn appears above
previous date. In the Far East, move the Moon halfway. The blue 10°
scale bar is about the width of your fist at arm's length. For clarity, the
the horizon about
Moon is shown three times its actual apparent size.
two hours after
Jupiter. Mean10°
Mars
Dusk, May 11-13
while at dawn,
Moon
May 7
45 minutes after sunset
Venus languishes
low in morning
twilight.
TA U R U S
Sickle
DUSK AND
LEO
Moon
EVENING

Mars starts the
month several
degrees from
Beta (β) Tauri
(El Nath) and at
about the same
brightness as the
star, around mag46

May 6

Moon
May 12

Aldebaran
Moon
May 13

Looking West-Northwest

M AY 2 0 1 9 * S K Y & T E L E S C O P E

Moon
May 11

Denebola

Regulus

Looking South, high in the sky

http://www.skypub.com/almanac http://www.skypub.com/almanac

Sky & Telescope - May 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - May 2019