Backyard Stargazer: Meet the stars in May
By Francis Parnell
May is a good time to get acquainted with the stars.
Francis Parnell, the Backyard Stargazer of Darlington
A great way to start learning about the night sky is to visit the FMU Dooley Planetarium. The shows are free and are on the second and fourth Sundays at 3 p.m. Take the kids and get there by 2:30 because seating is limited.
Just before dawn on the 2nd, look east to observe Venus rise; 5 degrees lower right you might be able to spot a very thin crescent Moon.
On the 6th at dusk, the slim waxing crescent Moon is in Taurus, 3 degrees upper right of Aldebaran, the bright eye of the Bull.
Looking north-northwest one hour after sunset on the 9th, find red Mars on the edge of the beautiful open star cluster M35 in Gemini. Binoculars will give an unforgettable view. M35 is 2,800 light-years away.
On four mornings from the 19th to the 23rd, the Moon visits a Scorpion, a Centaur (Sagittarius), and two giant planets.
Around 4 a.m. on the 19th, look south-southwest to see the waning gibbous Moon above the three stars that make up the head of Scorpius. The next morning the Moon has moved to 4 degrees right of yellow Jupiter, the king of the planets.
Around 4 a.m. on the 22nd, look south to find the Moon above the handle of the Teapot of Sagittarius, the Archer, and 7 degrees to the right of Saturn. On the 23rd, the Moon will be 5 degrees to the lower left of Saturn.
FAST FACT: Recently, cosmologists made an estimate of the number of stars in the universe. The number that they came up with is 40,000,000,000,000,000,000,000; that’s 40 billion trillion stars. And that’s a very conservative estimate!
“Keep looking up” and enjoying Mother Nature at her best.