{"id":523,"date":"2020-05-01T02:39:23","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T02:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=523"},"modified":"2020-05-01T02:39:23","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T02:39:23","slug":"may-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/may-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"May 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Orion is setting\nas evening begins. Gemini is above it and sets not long after. Leo is\non the meridian as darkness sets in. Hercules and Bo\u00f6tes are rising.\nBy midnight, the great celestial birds Cygnus and Aquila are rising.\nLook for Pegasus and Capricornus rising just before the sun’s morning\nlight takes the stars away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Venus\ncontinues its reign of the evening sky. Mercury moves up between the\nHyades and Pleiades below Venus around the middle of the month. The\nmessenger planet quickly leaves them behind and passes Venus on the\n21st<\/sup>.\nThe waxing crescent moon provides the two planets company on the 23rd<\/sup>\nand 24th<\/sup>.\nMercury is still heading eastward, attempting to go deeper into the\nnight sky as Venus recedes sunward into the sun’s evening glow at\nmonth’s end. You’ll find Mercury near Tejat and Propus in Castor’s\n(one of the twins of Gemini) feet in the last few evenings of May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As\nComet C\/2019 (Y4) Atlas has broken up into numerous small pieces, we\nshould no longer expect a spectacle of it. Astronomers had hoped it\nwould rise to naked eye brightness in May as it passes closest to\nEarth on the 23rd<\/sup>\nat 72 million miles (116 million km). For what it’s worth, the\nremnants will be moving in the area to the right of Venus and\nMercury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nour morning sky, see Jupiter and Saturn nearly standing still next to\neach other between Capricornus and Sagittarius while Mars moves\neastward from Capricornus to Aquarius this month. A waning gibbous\nmoon will pass by the two big planets on the 12th<\/sup>\nand the red planet on the 14th<\/sup>\nand 15th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Look\nfor Eta Aquariid meteors on the 4th<\/sup>\nand 5th<\/sup>.\nThis is a better shower from the southern hemisphere, but it’s not\nbad for northern observers. In a good year, you could see up to 60\nper hour south of the equator and about half that many in northern\nlocations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nmonth’s lunar circumstances: The moon crosses the equator northward\non the 5th<\/sup>,\nis at perigee on the 6th<\/sup>,\nand is full on the 7th<\/sup>.\nThe perigee at 223,500 miles (359,600 km) the day before full moon\nmakes it another so-called supermoon. Northern lunistice is on the\n11th<\/sup>.\nLast quarter is on the 14th<\/sup>.\nThe moon is on the equator again, going south on the 18th<\/sup>.\nThe same day, it’s at apogee 252,000 miles (405,600 km) distant. New\nmoon is on the 22nd<\/sup>.\nSouthern lunistice is on the 25th<\/sup>.\nAnd first quarter is on the 31st<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notable\nconjunctions this month: the moon is 4.0\u00b0 from Regulus on the 2nd<\/sup>.\nMercury is at superior conjunction on the 4th<\/sup>.\nThe moon passes 2.2\u00b0 from Jupiter and 2.6\u00b0 from Saturn on the 12th<\/sup>.\nThen it passes 2.6\u00b0 from Mars on the 15th<\/sup>\nand 3.6\u00b0 from Uranus on the 20th<\/sup>.\nMercury and Venus are 0.9\u00b0 apart on the 22nd<\/sup>.\nThe moon is 3.7\u00b0 rom Aldebaran on the 23rd<\/sup>,\n3.6\u00b0 from Venus on the 24th<\/sup>,\nand 2.7\u00b0 from Mercury also on the 24th<\/sup>.\nThe moon passes 4.5\u00b0 from Pollux on the 26th<\/sup>\nand 4.1\u00b0 from Regulus on the 29th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercury\nis at perihelion on the 10th<\/sup>.\nIt will be 28.5 million miles (45.9 million km) from the sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Orion is setting as evening begins. Gemini is above it and sets not long after. Leo is on the meridian as darkness sets in. Hercules and Bo\u00f6tes are rising. By midnight, the great celestial birds Cygnus and Aquila are rising. Look for Pegasus and Capricornus rising just before the sun’s morning light takes the stars […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-59"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523","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=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":527,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}