{"id":279,"date":"2018-04-28T03:39:56","date_gmt":"2018-04-28T03:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=279"},"modified":"2024-05-05T14:04:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-05T14:04:26","slug":"may-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/may-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Except for when the moon is in the neighborhood, Venus is the brightest object in the western sky in the evenings this month. You\u2019ll see it first. As darkness sets in, look for Sirius, Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, Capella, and Procyon too. Venus starts May a little right and above the Hyades. It passes near a star called Alnath in Auriga around the middle of the month and is at the feet of Castor a few days later. To be clear, we\u2019re talking about the feet of the twin Castor, not the star Castor which represents that twin\u2019s head. It is at the star Mebsuta in Castor\u2019s waist on the 27<sup>th<\/sup>. Venus will keep on moving into the Pollux stars in early June. Pollux is the other twin in Gemini and his head is also represented by a star named for the twin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-content\/uploads\/Venus-in-May-2018.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"588\" height=\"493\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Similarly in the east after sunset, Jupiter is the brightest object except for when the moon is near. The moon just past full rises shortly after the planet on the 1<sup>st<\/sup>. Jupiter is in the diamond of Libra. In early June it will leave the diamond near Zubenelgenubi. Keep watching in the months ahead and you\u2019ll see Jupiter return to Libra. The big planet is an all night object this month. Opposition is on the 9<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_274\" style=\"width: 537px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-274\" class=\"size-full wp-image-274\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-content\/uploads\/Jupiter-late-March-to-mid-June-2018.gif\" alt=\"Jupiter late March to mid June 2018\" width=\"527\" height=\"408\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-274\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jupiter late March to mid June 2018<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Saturn rises around midnight and Mars a little later. The ringed planet remains above the teapot in Sagittarius. The red planet starts May a little east of the archer constellation but is entering Capricornus by the end of the month.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-283\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-content\/uploads\/Saturn-and-Mars-early-May-2018.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"519\" height=\"378\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Try to spot Mercury passing through Pisces before sunrise in May. It was at its best showing for greatest elongation at the end of April from around 20\u00b0 to 25\u00b0 south. The view stays good for most of May from the low to mid southern latitudes. The most interesting view will be on the 13<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0when Uranus is about 2.2\u00b0 north of Mercury and a thin crescent moon is near. Mercury is advancing into the glow of sunrise and is very hard to see by the end of May.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-285\" src=\"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mercury-May-13-2018.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"726\" height=\"587\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mercury-May-13-2018.jpg 726w, https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mercury-May-13-2018-300x243.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 726px) 100vw, 726px\" \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The moon starts May just past full. It is at southern lunistice 20.6\u00b0 south on the 4<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0and at apogee 251,300 mi (404,400 km) away two days later. First quarter is on the 8<sup>th<\/sup>. It crosses the equator northward on the 12<sup>th<\/sup>. New moon is on the 15<sup>th<\/sup>. Perigee is on the 17<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0at a distance of 226,100 mi (363,800 km). The moon reaches 20.7\u00b0 north on the 18<sup>th<\/sup>. First quarter is on the 22<sup>nd<\/sup>. On the 25<sup>th<\/sup>, the moon goes south of the equator. And full moon is on the 29<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The asteroid Vesta is at perihelion on the 9<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0at 2.152 astronomical units from the sun. On the 15<sup>th<\/sup>, Venus is at 0.718 a.u. from the sun. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Except for when the moon is in the neighborhood, Venus is the brightest object in the western sky in the evenings this month. You\u2019ll see it first. As darkness sets in, look for Sirius, Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, Capella, and Procyon too. Venus starts May a little right and above the Hyades. It passes near a star [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-49"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions\/286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}