We will have a new Moon Monday May 5th so that means very dark night skies which are good for hunting down faint galaxies. If you are up early in the morning, you could see the HST (Hubble Space Telescope) pass over between 5 – 5:20 AM. The ISS (International Space Station) will also be making some visible early morning passes this week along with some Iridium Flares. (See the Heavens-above.com website for details)
The Eta Aquarid meteor showers I wrote about last week are peaking Monday May 5th but can be seen through May 7th. These meteors are from leftover Comet 1P/Halley particles the Earth will be passing through. This meteor shower can only be seen in the hour or two just before dawn here in the northern hemisphere as the radiant (spot where the meteors start from) is in constellation Aquarius.
Saturn (Mag 0.6) and over 827 million miles from Earth is still moving along the body of Leo the Lion, and is just 2.3 degrees from bright star Regulus (Mag 1.35). The rings are magnificent and brightest moon Titan (Mag 8.3) is now moving from the west and will pass behind the planet May 5th. Titan will then move to the East of Saturn getting furthest away May 8-9th before heading back. Mars (Mag 1.4) is over 150 million miles away and now entering constellation Cancer. It is 5 degrees south of star Pollux and so the Gemini Twins, Pollux and Castor now show three bright objects in a row making them look like triplets. Mercury (Mag -0.8) will be seen at its best for the next few weeks just as the Sun sets in the evening. On Tuesday, May 6th, Mercury can be seen just under the sliver of the Moon 45 minutes after sunset. Venus (Mag -3.9), Uranus (Mag 5.9) and Neptune (Mag 7.9) can only be seen in the morning sky right now. Jupiter (Mag -2.5) does not rise until after midnight.
Since this is the New Moon time of the month, you might want to get away from the city lights and look for galaxies. All galaxies are far away so they do not look very impressive in binoculars or small telescopes. M51 (Mag 8.1), the Whirlpool Galaxy was discovered in 1773 by Charles Messier which he described as a faint nebula without stars. Now we know that he saw a galaxy 37 million light years away that is 118,000 light years in diameter and shaped a lot like our Milky Way Galaxy. It is easy to find in binoculars, just aim at the next-to-last star (Mizar) in the Big Dipper’s handle. Scan from there to the last star (Alkaid) in the handle and then make a right angle turn to your right. The galaxy, just a faint smudge, should come into view before star Alkaid falls out of view.
Anyone wanting to know more about astronomy and what’s up in the sky this month can attend the open meeting of the Orange County Astronomers. Meetings are held at Chapman University the 2nd Friday of each month starting at 7:30 pm. Please go to the OCA website for directions and other information: http://www.ocastronomers.org