THE SKY IN MAY 



By Joe Rao 



Africa & Egypt 



Mercury reaches superior conjunc- 

 tion, passing behind the Sun's disk, on 

 May 18, one day after the planet cross- 

 es the ecliptic and begins to move 

 north against the sky. Because it will 

 also be at perihelion (the planet's clos- 

 est approach to the Sun) on the 21st, 

 the speedy planet will quickly move 

 into view by about the 29th. On that 

 night Mercury begins a good appari- 

 tion that lasts through June. With 

 binoculars, look for it low in the west- 

 northwest during evening twilight. 

 Thirty minutes after sunset Mercury 

 shines bright at magnitude —1.1, 

 about five degrees above the horizon. 



Venus doesn't rise until shortly after first 

 light. Once it does, however, it is so 

 bright that its rays easily pierce the ad- 

 vancing veil of daylight. The planet 

 continues to rise at dawn every morn- 

 ing as viewed from the mid-northern 

 latitudes, but it doesn't get very high 

 before it's lost in the glare of sunrise. 

 Venus recedes from Earth as it races 

 ahead of us in its faster orbit around the 

 Sun. A slender crescent Moon appears 

 well to the left and slightly above Venus 

 on the morning of the 24th. 



Mars is in the western evening sky, ap- 

 pearing only one-fortieth as bright as 

 it did six months ago. And the Red 

 Planet continues to fade, dimming in 

 magnitude from 1 .5 to 1 .7. All month, 

 it is comparable in brightness to the 

 stars Castor and Pollux, in the con- 

 stellation Gemini, the twins. Mars 

 forms a nearly perfect straight line 

 with Castor and Pollux on the evening 

 of the 31st. Watch the stars for a few 

 days before and after that date for a 

 clear view of Mars's motion. This 

 month, Mars moves twenty degrees 

 east, through Gemini and into the 

 boundaries of the dim constellation 

 Cancer, the crab. A thin crescent 

 Moon appears above and to the right 

 of Mars on the evening of the 30th. 



Jupiter is in the western part of the 

 constellation Libra, the scales, this 



month. The planet arrives at opposi- 

 tion (on the opposite side of the Earth 

 from the Sun) on the 4th, and so on 

 that night it rises at sunset and sets at 

 sunrise. Shining at magnitude -2.5, 

 Jupiter is second in brightness only to 

 Venus. By mid-month it is well up in 

 the southeast as darkness descends and 

 forms a rather conspicuous triangle 

 with the stars Spica and Arcturus. 



Saturn shines at magnitude 0.3 in the 

 constellation Cancer. The gas giant is 

 more than halfway up in the south- 

 southwestern sky as darkness falls at 

 the beginning of the month. It setsjust 

 after 2 A.M. on the 1st and a couple of 

 hours earlier by month's end. On the 

 night of the 3rd a fat crescent Moon 

 hovers well to the right of Saturn as 

 the pair descends in the western sky. 

 But that is only the first of two Moon- 

 Saturn pairings this month. On the 

 evening of the 3 1 st a thinner crescent 

 Moon passes about three degrees 

 above Saturn. 



The Moon waxes to first quarter on 

 the 5th at 1 : 13 A.M. and to full on the 

 13th at 2:51 a.m. Our satellite wanes 

 to last quarter on the 20th at 5:20 A.M. 

 and to new on the 27th at 1:26 A.M. 



During mid-month, observers might 

 catch a glimpse of Comet 73P/Schwass- 

 mann-Wachmann 3, a small, faint comet 

 that completes one full circuit around 

 the Sun roughly every 5.3 years. In 

 1995 it unexpectedly fractured into at 

 least five pieces and in the process 

 became just visible to the unaided 

 eye. On the 1 2th, en route toward the 

 Sun, the biggest of the fragments 

 (fragment "C") passes within 7.3 mil- 

 lion miles of Earth. For a few nights 

 around that date the fragment might 

 again be visible to the naked eye. The 

 Web site tinyurl.com/8tcxz offers maps 

 that depict the comet's track across 

 the constellations. 



Unless otherwise noted, all times are given 

 in eastern daylight time. 



May 2006 NATURAL HISTORY 



67 



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