Volume 25 Issue 5
May 2019
May 2019
Month at a Glance:
This month Mercury will be visible for the first part of the month in the morning skies as it steadily moves eastward catching up with the Sun. Venus is following Mercury's lead as it also is moving eastward and coming closer to the Sun's glare. Mars is visible over the southwestern horizon at sunset and is steadily moving eastward across the eastern part of Taurus the Bull into the Gemini Twins. Dwarf Planet Ceres rises after midnight and is located a few degrees from Jupiter. The apparent magnitude of Ceres continues to increase as Ceres moves toward opposition at the end of the month. Both of the giant outer planets, Jupiter and Saturn, rise around midnight and will be over the southern horizon at sunrise the following morning. Jupiter reaches opposition this month and Saturn's opposition is next month.
Click here for the month at a glance calendar.
This month Mercury will be visible for the first part of the month in the morning skies as it steadily moves eastward catching up with the Sun. Venus is following Mercury's lead as it also is moving eastward and coming closer to the Sun's glare. Mars is visible over the southwestern horizon at sunset and is steadily moving eastward across the eastern part of Taurus the Bull into the Gemini Twins. Dwarf Planet Ceres rises after midnight and is located a few degrees from Jupiter. The apparent magnitude of Ceres continues to increase as Ceres moves toward opposition at the end of the month. Both of the giant outer planets, Jupiter and Saturn, rise around midnight and will be over the southern horizon at sunrise the following morning. Jupiter reaches opposition this month and Saturn's opposition is next month.
Click here for the month at a glance calendar.
Mercury will be visible for about the first week of the month but moving closer to the Sun as Mercury moves toward superior conjunction on the 21st.
Venus is still visible but low over the eastern horizon at sunrise but Venus will be getting more dificult to observe as Venus continues eastward and rising closer to the time of sunrise. Watch for a close conjunction with Uranus on the 17th.
Mars is visible over the southwestern horizon at sunset and sets around 2-3 hours after the Sun sets. Mars slowly moves from Taurus into the Gemini Twins during this month and will be less than 1o from the open star cluster M-35 near the feet of the twins.
Dwarf Planet Ceres rises after midnight and is visible the remainder of the night hours. Ceres reaches opposition this month and will also be at its greatest apparent magnitude and possibly within the reach of binoculars.
Jupiter rises before midnight and is visible the remainder of the night hours. Jupiter reaches opposition on the 10th.
Saturn rises after midnight and is visible the remainder of the night hours.
Above the Solar System at 10 day Intervals
Lee's Summit, MO 