By Duncan Lunan

The Moon will be Full on May 5^th, and it will be New on May 19^th, passing close to the bright planets as it circles the sky during the month.  On the 5^th there will be a penumbral eclipse of the Moon, over eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia, not visible from the UK but too faint to see in any case.

The planet Mercury is not visible this month, at inferior conjunction on this side of the Sun on the 1^st, and despite being at greatest elongation from the Sun on the 29^th, too far south in the morning sky for us.

Venus remains very bright in the evening sky, still setting after midnight.  On 22^nd to 24^th May, as the Moon passes through Gemini, it will be very close to Venus on the 23^rd with Castor and Pollux above them.

Mars begins the month in Gemini, passing Castor and Pollux on the 10^th, and is passed by the Moon on the 24^th as they both head into Cancer.  Mars sets about 1.30 a.m..

NASA’s LUCY mission to the Trojan asteroids in the orbit of Jupiter photographed four of its intended targets at a distance of 330 million miles, on a trial run in March.  LUCY will pass a much closer asteroid, by chance, on November 1^st, providing another useful test, but won’t reach its target Trojans for four more years.

Jupiter is now in the morning sky, rising about 4 a.m. on the border of Pisces and Aries, occulted in daylight by the Moon as seen from Scotland on May 17^th.  The event will be partial at Ayr, from 2.45 p.m. to 3.01 p,m, and total elsewhere in Scotland north of Troon and Kilmarnock,  In Edinburgh the disappearance will be from 2.44 to 2.49 p.m., and in Shetland from 2.30 to 3.14 p,m,  Most guides to this year’s events don’t mention it, for some reason, stating only that Jupiter will be near the crescent Moon before sunrise that day.  Major caution is needed in observing the occultation, because it will only be visible in binoculars or a telescope, and the Sun will be only 26 degrees to the left, two and a half fists’ width at arm’s length.  Full details can be found in the May edition of Astronomy Now, currently on sale.

I was asked recently why Jupiter isn’t in the south in the evenings ‘as usual’, and the answer is that because Jupiter takes 12 years to orbit the Sun, each year the Earth takes another month to catch up with it.  Jupiter will be back in its ‘usual’ place by late evening in August, and well into the night sky by September.

Saturn in Aquarius is also in the morning sky, rising about 3 a.m., and above the waning crescent Moon on the 13^th and 14^th,

Uranus in Aries is not visible in May, in conjunction beyond the Sun on May 9^th.  Because Uranus lies ‘on its side’ relative to the other planets, its northern hemisphere is now face-on to us, and on 6^th April NASA and ESA jointly released a spectacular image from the James Webb Space Telescope, showing the planet’s rings in full as well as bright storms in the polar region.

Neptune rises about 2.30 a.m., in Pisces, near the Moon on the 15^th.

The eta Aquarid meteor shower from Halley’s comet peaks on the morning of the 7^th.  Halley’s Comet is at its furthest from the Sun and from us on December 9^th this year, before starting on its way back for its next visit in 2061.  Bill Cooke, leader of the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Centre, Huntsville, Alabama, has estimated that a stream of dust from Halley’s Comet in 390 BC could encounter the Earth on the 7^th, possibly generating twice the usual hourly rate for the meteors, up to two per minute.  Unfortunately the Moon will be only two days past Full, near Antares in Scorpius, and is likely to spoil the show if it occurs.

Duncan Lunan’s recent books are available through Amazon.  For more information see Duncan’s website, www.duncanlunan.com

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