Volume 26 Issue 5
May 2020
May 2020
Month at a Glance:
This month all six of the visible planets remain visible. In the evening look for Venus, Mercury, and of course the Earth. Early morning skies include Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, the Dwarf Planet Ceres, and of course the Earth!
There is also the possibility of Comet Atlas is predicted to brighten enough to be visible to the unaided eye, perhaps reaching close to
0 apparent magnitude during May. That prediction is based on my software, Starry Night Pro,
and how it displays the comet. Explore the location and visibility of the comet at the Sky Live web site.
The HST, Hubble Space Telescope caught Comet Atlas breaking apart.
This month all six of the visible planets remain visible. In the evening look for Venus, Mercury, and of course the Earth. Early morning skies include Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, the Dwarf Planet Ceres, and of course the Earth!
The HST, Hubble Space Telescope caught Comet Atlas breaking apart.
Mercury is at superior conjunction early this month and then moves out to the east side of the Sun and the evening skies. As Mercury is moving eastward it will catch up with the westward moving Venus and pass by Venus rather quickly as planet conjunctions go. Watch for a close conjunction with Venus on the evenings of the 21st and 22nd.
Venus remains very visible shining over the western horizon at sunset, setting about 1-2 hours after sunset local time. Venus is moving westward, retrograde, this month. This combined with the Sun's apparent eastward motion means that by month's end Venus will be close to the Sun, and will be setting very close to the time of sunset.
Mars remains visible over the eastern horizon at sunset as it steadily moves eastward moving away from Saturn and Jupiter.
Dwarf Planet Ceres rises ahead of the Sun this month but with an apparent magnitude of between 7.5 and 8.0 the closest Dwarf Planet to the Earth is still too dim to be visible with any other than optical assistance - binoculars, telescope, camera.
Jupiter is shining brightly over the southeastern horizon in the hours before sunrise local time and very slowly is starting to move closer to Saturn for a close conjunction later this year. Watch on the morning of the 12th for the waning gibbous Moon to be near Jupiter and Saturn.
Saturn like its near twin Jupiter remains visible over the southeastern horizon in the hours before sunrise.
Above the Solar System at 10 day Intervals
