Stargazing Information

Venus returns to evening skies this month, shining as the "evening star" quite low in the west at nightfall by month's end. By that time, its only rival in the night sky, brilliant Jupiter, is dropping toward the Sun and getting ready to exit the evening sky. In the meantime, one of the signature constellations of summer, Scorpius, skitters into view in late evening, preceded by the scorpion's long-lost claws, the stars of Libra, the balance scales.

This Week's Stargazing Tips

May 24

A new cycle of eclipses begins tonight as the full Moon just dips its toe in Earth’s faint outer shadow, the penumbra. That shadow will cover just about one percent of the lunar disk, but it is so faint that no one will notice the difference.

May 25

A beautiful bit of cosmic theater plays out very low in the west-northwest shortly after sunset the next few evenings. The dazzling planets Venus and Jupiter will slide past each other, while a fainter third planet, Mercury, watches from above.

May 26

Jupiter is quite low in the west-northwest beginning about 20 minutes after sunset this evening. The bright planet forms a tight triangle with brighter Venus, to its lower right, and fainter Mercury, a bit farther to its upper right.

May 27

The planets Venus and Jupiter pose side by side quite low in the western sky shortly after sunset. Venus is the brighter of the two, with Jupiter just to the left.

May 28

Mercury is in great view. The little planet is low in the west-northwest at sunset, above the brighter planets Venus and Jupiter. Mercury looks like a fairly bright star itself. It will climb higher into the sky over the next few evenings.

May 29

A pretty but faint semicircle of stars crowns the sky around midnight. Appropriately enough, it’s the constellation Corona Borealis, the northern crown. You need dark skies to pick out this stellar tiara.

May 30

Cygnus, the swan, rises in the northeast this evening. Its body appears parallel to the horizon. To find the swan, look for its brightest star, Deneb, low above the northeastern horizon around 10 or 11 p.m.

Check last week's tips if you missed a day.

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