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EYES TO THE SKY: Meteor shower, moon, star and planet gazing

There’s much more to lure us outdoors at 4 a.m.: Between catching shooting stars, skim the southern skyline to see one of the most compelling constellations, Scorpius the Scorpion, accented by brilliant, red-orange Mars and golden Saturn.

May 2 – 15, 2016

square of pegasus
If you’re familiar with the Square of Pegasus, you can star-hop to the radiant of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. But you don’t have to find a shower’s radiant point to see the meteors.
 Diagram courtesy EarthSky.org

Mt. Washington — Moonlight will be scarce for the next week and a half, making for dark skies and the promise of optimum enjoyment of the planets, spring stars, and the Eta Aquariid meteor shower. It’s the time in the moon’s cycle when, at first, the picturesque, waning crescent moon rises in the east at dawn for a brief appearance before sunrise. Look for it an hour before sunrise on the 3rd and 4th. Then Luna moves between the Earth and sun; its far side is lit by the sun while the side facing Earth is dark. This is known as new moon: the precise line-up of Earth, moon, and sun occurs on the 6th at 3:29 p.m. Within a day or two, a delicate crescent reappears on the other side of the sun, close to the western horizon following the setting sun. Find it on the 7th or 8th, visible briefly at dusk. Through the 10th, enjoy the waxing crescent as it increases in size, is up longer, and is surrounded by the Winter Circle of bright stars.

aldebaran
Young moon and Aldebaran at dusk May 7. Diagram courtesy EarthSky.org

The Eta Aquariid meteor shower is predicted to peak during the first week of May, especially the pre-dawn hours of the 5th and 6th. Every spring Earth enters the debris stream of Halley’s comet, which passes through our solar system about every 76 years. When comet leavings enter our atmosphere, they burn up at high speed and we see meteors, or shooting stars. The Eta Aquariid is not one of the most intense showers but it does promise 10 to 20 meteors per hour and, this year, there’s no interference from moonlight. Although the radiant is low in the east-southeast, meteors may be seen anywhere in the sky.

scorpius
Scorpius as depicted in Urania’s Mirror, a set of constellation cards published in London c.1825. Courtesy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorpius

There’s much more to lure us outdoors at 4 a.m. Between catching shooting stars, skim the southern skyline to see one of the most compelling constellations, Scorpius the Scorpion, accented by brilliant, red-orange Mars and golden Saturn. Below Mars, find the Scorpion’s red heart star, Antares, which forms a triangle with the planets. To the left, east of Scorpius, notice the Teapot pattern.

Mars is becoming the all-night feature in May skies. It rises in the southeast around 10 p.m. on the 2nd and 8:45 p.m. on the 15th; it sets in the southwest at 7:11 a.m. on the 3rd and 6 a.m. on the 15th. Jupiter, currently the brightest celestial object next to the moon, is now high in the south-southeast as twilight deepens; it sets during the wee hours.

 

Solar System event:
mercury and sun
Solar system event: Seek out access to a solar-viewing equipped telescope
 to watch Mercury slip off the solar disk at the conclusion of its 5½-hour
long transit on May 9th. Start looking by about 2:35 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Be alert for any hint of the “black drop effect” as the planet’s tiny silhouette nears contact with the edge. Fred Espenak via Sky & Telescope
Resources:

May 2 – 8, call for participants, dark skies study: report visibility of Leo the Lion: https://www.globeatnight.org/

https://theberkshireedge.com/eyes-to-the-sky-the-globe-at-night-one-stargazer-at-a-time/

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