SkyEye

The Calendar

Jupiter rules the skies of May, coming to opposition on the ninth. The planet is at its biggest and brightest this month.

The Solar System

The word planet is derived from the Greek word for 'wanderer'. Unlike the background stars, planets seem to move around the sky, keeping mostly to a narrow track called the ecliptic, the path of the Sun across the stars. Dwarf planets and small solar-system bodies, including comets, are not so constrained, often moving far above or below the ecliptic.

Sun Aries → Taurus

Mercury Pisces → Aries → Taurus

Mercury is visible in the east before sunrise but disappears from view by the end of the month. Southern hemisphere observers get much the best views early in May.

Venus Taurus → Gemini

The evening star is high above the western horizon at sunset for northern hemisphere observers and rising higher throughout the month.

Earth and Moon

The waning gibbous Moon hampers observations of the η Aquariid meteor shower on 6 May. Although the series of lunar occultations of Regulus has finished, the Moon is still gliding in front of Aldebaran. This first-magnitude star is eclipsed by the Moon on 16 May.

Mars Sagittarius → Capricornus

The southern hemisphere is the place to be to observe Mars in the early morning hours.

Jupiter Libra

Jupiter is at opposition on 9 May and shines its brightest at magnitude −2.5. Rather low in the horizon for temperate northern latitudes, this gas giant is high in the sky for observers farther south. It is visible all night.

Saturn Sagittarius

Now rising before midnight, the ringed planet is becoming more convenient to observe during the evening but is still primarily a morning sky object. It can be found 1.7° south of the waning gibbous Moon on the fourth day of the month.

Uranus Aries

This faint ice giant may still be too close to the Sun to be seen in the morning sky this month.

Neptune Aquarius

A small telescope is necessary to view the most distant planet in the solar system. Neptune rises in the early morning hours and is best seen from the southern hemisphere.