May 2008 - The Joys of Spring |
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Written by Ken From
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Thursday, 01 May 2008 |
The month of May ushers in the fullness of spring with warmer and longer days along with scenes of life bursting anew from the earth. Even though evenings are short, one can also enjoy spring nights by standing under our starry canopy and drinking in the vastness of the universe. “But it’s all so beautiful…and it makes you feel good to be alive…It’s a wonderful world—a wonderful universe we live in.” (Barbara Wilson quoted by Timothy Ferris in Seeing in the Dark, Simon and Schuster)
 This month, use the warmer weather to soak in the beauty of our planet and its celestial neighborhood.
As darkness falls on May evenings, Saturn appears almost directly
to the south, accompanied by the bright star, Regulus, to the west. In
Saturn’s 30 year journey around the sun its rings will appear “edge on”
every 15 years. We are now approaching the time when we will change our
perspective from looking down on Saturn’s north pole and its rings to
looking up on Saturn’s south pole and its rings. For those who have
never seen Saturn through a telescope, the views are still stunning and
Saturn is well placed in our sky for springtime observing.
The other obvious planet in our evening skies is Mars which began
May in direct line with the two stars known as the Gemini Twins –
Castor and Pollux. Throughout May, Mars appears to move in an
easterly direction from these stars towards Saturn. On the night of
May 22, Mars will travel through the bright Beehive star cluster. Grab
the binoculars and enjoy this spectacular sight in the western skies.
If you are able to identify the Gemini Twins, you will notice that our
prominent winter constellation, Orion, has now disappeared into the
glow of the sun by the time darkness falls. Only Castor and Pollux
leave evidence of Orion’s position behind the sun.
Until the middle of May, the solar system’s innermost planet,
Mercury, will be visible in the west after sunset. This elusive
planet never strays far from the sun and often is difficult to see.
However, the geometry of our solar system allows us one of the best
views of the year during May. Venus is making a sprint to the far
side of the sun and will emerge later in the summer as the bright
“evening star.”
Rising in the northeastern skies are two bright stars, Vega and
Deneb. These two stars form the top of our summer triangle and are a
sign that summer is just around the corner. With the disappearance of
the bright winter star, Sirius, Vega now is the brightest star visible
to people in northern latitudes.
Perhaps we become accustomed to the moon in our night sky and don’t
pay much attention to it. But as the moon waxes closer to a full moon
on May 20, examine the craters and mountains on the moon with
binoculars or in a telescope. The line between light and dark is
called the “terminator.” With the sun shining across the moon’s high
and low points, shadows are formed and allow us to see detail more
clearly than when the sun shines directly on the moon such as at full
moon.
With the approach of summer, enjoy the warmer days and evenings to enjoy all the wonders of our earth and sky.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 01 May 2008 )
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