In the Sky This Month

The planet Venus is in the west shortly after sunset this evening, close to the right of the crescent Moon. Venus is the brilliant “evening star,” so you can’t miss it.

The bright yellow star Arcturus, in the constellation Bootes, stands high in the east at nightfall. It is one of the brightest stars in the night sky. Bootes also contains a large void — a huge volume of space with almost no galaxies.

One of the oldest groups of the stars in the entire Milky Way galaxy is M92. It’s in Hercules, which is in the east and northeast as night falls. M92’s stars probably are more than 13 billion years old, which is almost as old as the universe.

One of the most famous characters in the night sky takes a prominent position at this time of year: Hercules, the strongman. His relatively faint constellation is in view by the time it gets dark, and soars high overhead during the night.

A beautiful spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices has a black eye. M64, the Black Eye galaxy, has a prominent dark band below its nucleus. The band is a lane of dust, which is the likely residue from a smaller galaxy that M64 gobbled up.

Leo, the lion, dives head-first toward the western horizon during May and June evenings. Tonight it stands high in the south as darkness falls. The last of its bright stars to set is Denebola, “the lion’s tail.”

The constellation Coma Berenices is high in the east at nightfall. Both a cluster and a supercluster of galaxies are centered in the constellation. Telescopes reveal a smorgasbord of galaxies of varying type, size, and brightness.

The star cluster Melotte 111, in Coma Berenices, is a good target for binoculars or a small telescope. The constellation is high in the east at nightfall, and good binoculars reveal a small swarm of stars.

Coma Berenices is in the eastern sky at nightfall. Its stars are faint. But under a dark sky, they offer one of the prettiest sights in the heavens: streamers of stars that represent the hair of Berenice, a queen of ancient Egypt.

As twilight fades this evening, two lights will pop into view long before the others. In the west, look for Venus, the “evening star.” At about the same height in the southeast, look for slightly fainter Jupiter, at its brightest for the year.