Full Moon:
May 4
New Moon:
May 19
STAR GAZE (May 14):
Sun: Sets at 8:30pm, astronomical twilight ends at 9:09pm
and begins at 3:50am the next morning. The Sun rises the next morning at 6:27am.
Between astronomical twilights, we get about 5.7 hours of darkness.
Moon: (illuminated 16%) The Moon sets before the sun, but rises at 4:14am.
Jupiter & it's moons: Jupiter is 63 degrees above
the horizon at sunset. Jupiter culminates (is highest in the sky) at 10:46pm.
The Great Red Spot crosses Jupiter's meridian about 9:14pm.
1. Io is in transit 9:12pm-11:28pm.
2. Io's shadow is in transit 10:25pm-12:40am.
3. Europa is in transit 12:49am-03:40am
4. Europa's shadow is in transit 3:19am-6:09am..
Saturn: Saturn is only 39 degrees above the western
horizon at sunset. The "star" located about 3 ring diameters away
to the southeast is really the moon Titan. Saturn will be lost in the sun's
glare in a few months. The rings appear very tilted to our view at this time,
so Cassini's Division and other ring features are visible.
Asteroids: Ceres has crossed from Gemini
into Cancer this month and is high in the west at sunset on the night of the
gaze. You can see it in good binoculars as a faint, star-like object at magnitude
8.7.
Comet NEAT C/2001 Q4 is near the center of Cancer, about 3 degrees west of Delta Cancri. It is expected to be about magnitude 3.0 and visible to the naked eye. C/2001 Q4 reaches perihelion on May 15.
SOLAR SYSTEM:
Mercury: At greatest western elongation on May 14, above
the eastern horizon, but not a very good showing this time around.
Venus: Begins the month at it's peak brightness of magnitude -4.5 (wow!), and is still magnitude 4.0 at the end of the month, but it will be only 9 degrees above the western horizon at sunset by the end of the month. This is a very interesting time to look at Venus because it becomes a large, thin crescent and "sharp eyed" folks can even make out the crescent shape with out optical aid!
Venus now so bright and far from the sun, that it can be seen in daylight if you know exactly where to look. Use the nearby moon on May 20 to locate it.
Venus transits the Sun for the first time in 122 years on June 8. Get ready!
Mars: Too far away for us to see any telescopic detail, it can be found about 1/3 of the way between Saturn & Venus, low in the early western sky.
Jupiter: High in the evening sky. Catch it this month and in June, before it gets too close to the western horizon.
Saturn: Get your views early in the evening because it drops towards the western horizon early, and will be too close to the horizon next month for clear views.
Comet NEAT C/2001 Q4 is nearest to Earth on May 6. It is expected to be at it's brightest then, maybe magnitude 2.5, but it will be near the horizon in Canis Major, and the moon will be near full. We should have a good view of this comet by mid-month as it climbs higher in the sky, fading to maybe magnitude 4 by month's end. See this Sky & Telescope article.
Comet LINEAR C/2002 T7 will poke it's head above the SWS horizon in late May and in June, at about magnitude 4. It will fade from site by the end of June. See Sky and Telescope article.
DEEP SKY OBJECTS (DSO's)
(Not the biggest or brightest, but interesting):
1. Star Lalande 21185 (aka: Hip 54035 or HD 95735):
Lalande 21185 is a class M2 red dwarf star (about one-third the
mass of our sun and about 3,000 degrees K), 8.3 light years away at magnitude
7.5. It is the 4th closest star system to the sun (the 6th closest
star). The other closer star systems also are or contain red dwarfs: Alpha
Proxima Centauri, Barnard’s Star in Ophiucus, and Wolf 359 in Leo. Of these
three red dwarfs, only Barnard’s star is detectable in most amateur telescopes.
Lalande 21185 is one of the brightest red dwarfs in our solar neighborhood. Astronomers think that Lalande 21185 may have a binary stellar companion and/or several Jupiter size planets. It also has a large proper motion of about 5” of arc per year. Barnard’s star has a larger proper motion of over 10” of arc per year.
Lalande 21185 obtains its name from Joseph Lalande, a Frenchman and friend of Charles Messier. He was also director of the Paris Observatory in the 1700s. He cataloged close to 50,000 stars during his lifetime.
For detail location information use: Sky Atlas 2000.0, Chart 6 and Uranometria 2000, vol. 1, chart 55, left side. (Location: In Ursa Major near the Leo Minor border, 11hr 4m RA +36deg 2' Dec)
See this red dwarf and a red giant in the same 47' FOV: Located 47 arc minutes WNW of Lalande 21185 is a 6th magnitude M2 class red-giant star designated Hip 53726. The 2 stars fit nicely in the same low-power field-of-view (FOV). Hip 53726 appears 4 times brighter than Lalande 21185, yet it is over 100 times farther away at 894 light years!!
2. NGC4565: A highly elongated, edge-on spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices. Very nice, especially for a non-Messier object! The dust lane is visible in 8" scopes under dark skies. Mottling and knots are visible in larger scopes. 31 Million light years away, and about 125,000 light years in diameter. Catch it early in the evening when it is high, or in March when it is high after midnight and many offending community lights are turned off. Magnitude 9.6 (Location: 12hr 36m RA 25deg 59' Dec)
3. OMEGA CENTAURI: The most impressive Globular Cluster visible from Earth, too bad it is so far south. But to see it at all from this far north, May after dark is a good time to check it out if you have a clear view to the southern horizon. It crosses the meridian in mid-May at 10:00pm. Being 15,500 light years away, it is one of the nearest globulars, but is still 60% of the way to the galactic center (although 68 degrees to the west of galactic center, and a little south). There are about 1,000,000 stars in this 300 light-year-diameter cluster. Magnitude 3.5 (Location: 13h 27m R.A. -47 deg 29' Dec)
4. Delta Corvi (Double stars): a fairly bright, white primary paired with a dim pale blue secondary, 24.2" separation; Magnitudes 3.0 & 9.2. Their distance from Earth is 88 light years & true separation is 650 a.u. (16x that of our sun and Pluto). This pair is the upper-left star in Corvus. (Location: 12h 29.9m R.A. -16 deg 31' Dec)
5. STF 1669 CORVI (Double stars): a pair of equally bright yellow stars at 5.4" separation; Magnitudes 6.0 & 6.1. Their distance from Earth is 278 light years, & true separation is 426 a.u. (7x that of our sun and Pluto). (Location: 12hr 41m R.A. -13 deg 01' Dec).
6. 28 CORVI (Double
stars) : a closer pair, yellow and white, at 2.2" separation; Magnitudes
6.5 & 8.6. Their distance from Earth is 81 light years, & true separation
is 53 a.u.. This makes their separation only 1.4x that of our sun and
Pluto (40 a.u.)! It is easy to imagine the size of the Solar System
placed here. Just sit there at the eye piece and imagine the sun in place of
the primary star, and Pluto 80% of the way to the other star. Then sit there
and contemplate a while longer. (Location:12hr 30m R.A. -13
deg 24' Dec) See the orbital
plot at Richard Dibon-Smith web site.
HIGHLIGHTS:
May Day, or Beltane: May 1, one of
the 4 "cross quarter" days in the standard calendar, it marks the
beginning of Solar Summer in the old agrarian calendars. This is the quarter
of the year with most sunlight (May,June,July), as opposed to the quarter that
is hottest (June,July,August). See this Weather
Almanac article. (Begin celebrating at sundown on April 30, as did the ancient
Celts. Their days began and ended with sunset.)
Eta Aquarid meteors on night of May 5 & morning of May 6. These are particles from comet Halley, but will be washed out by light from the full moon.
CLUB STARGAZE:
You can check the AstroAsheville
Yahoo group (or call Tim @ 251-0040 or John @ 251-1933 x17 (before 5:00)
or 667-9268 (after 5:00)) for a go/no-go decision and to verify location.
CLUB MEETING:
Indoor club meetings are usually the first Thursday of every
month, at 6 p.m. in the Sim’s
Group offices (230 Short Coxe Ave., Asheville, NC.)
Happy Starwatching! Dress Warm!
Blue Ridge Parkway Information
Line is 828-298-0398
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(Much of the above info is derived from Sky & Telescope magazine, Ottewell's
Astronomical Calendar, The Night Sky Observer's Guide, Burnam's Celestial Handbook,
Megastar 5.0, Planets202, the ol' Miller Planesphere, and a little (very little)
common sense.)
