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Volume 19 -- Issue 05
Planet Watch -- May 2013

Mercury starts becoming visible as an evening planet during the middle of the month as it joins Venus and Jupiter over the western horizon at sunset.
This animated graphic is set to 1-day intervals and shows the evening sky at 9 pm CDT starting on the 22nd and ending on the 31st.

Venus starts becoming more easily seen over the western horizon at sunset as it joins Mercury and Jupiter in some interesting conjunction arrangements throughout the month.

Mars is too close to the Sun and is not visible this month as was just at solar conjunction the middle of last month.
Jupiter is visible but low over the southwest horizon at sunset and teams up with the two inner planets, Mercury and Venus, during the month.
Saturn, just past opposition at the end of April and is still visible all night as it rises around local sunset time, and does not set until around sunrise the next morning. Saturn is still in retrograde this month.