What’s Up This First Week of May

We have finally made it to May, the doorstep of summer. The saying goes “April showers bring May flowers”, but it seems like it is not done raining yet. The middle of the week will be filled with rainy days and nights. There is hope for some clear nights over the weekend and perhaps early next week.

Sunset occurs around 8:30 PM. Have your stargazing equipment ready by 9:30 PM. Bring a light jacket with you since the temperature will drop into the low 50s as the nighttime air cools off.

During the clear nights this week be on the lookout for Eta-Aquariid meteors, the moon passing some star clusters, the first quarter moon, and another galaxy.

Friday, May 6, is the peak of the Eta-Aquariids meteor shower. This meteor shower is not a “common name” like the Perseid or the Leonid meteor showers, but the source of all the Eta-Aquariids meteors is pretty famous. All meteor showers are the result of earth passing through left over debris from a comet passing through the inner solar system. The comet debris responsible for the Et-Aquariids is Halley’s Comet – one of the most famous comets in history. This shower runs from late April to late May and has a peak rate of around 50 meteors per hour on the morning of Sunday the 8th.

The Eta Aquarids are best when the radiant, that is the place in the sky that from which they seem to is up. This occurs in the pre-dawn hours.

As the week goes by the moon will creep eastward, advancing through its phases. During this time it will be passing by some popular deep-sky objects that are great for binocular and telescope viewing. Wednesday (May 4th) the moon will be passing close to the Shoe-Buckle Cluster (Messier 35). Then on Saturday (May 7th) the moon will pass near the Beehive Cluster (Messier 44). Both of these objects are open cluster which contain a little over one thousand young and bright stars. How many of these stars can you spot through your binoculars vs your telescope?

The beehive will be difficult to see against the bright, almost-first quarter moon, but it may make a good photograph.

Sunday, May 8, marks the first quarter moon. This is bad news for deep-sky astrophotographers since most of the sky will be washed out from the moon’s glow. This is good news for most other stargazers since the naked eye, binoculars, and a telescope are all great tools for viewing and enjoying the surface features of our moon. Try spotting the different Apollo landing sites using binoculars – disclaimer: you will not be able to see the descent stages of the lunar landers nor the iconic American flags that are still standing, since they are so too small and far too far away. Imagine trying to spot a single car from 250,000 miles away. That’s what it’s like.

The “galaxy of the week” this time is the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (Messier 83). This face-on spiral galaxy sits 15 million light-years away and is located in the very southern skies, only 20° above the horizon at its highest point. M83 shines at magnitude 7.5, so it can be spotted with binoculars or a telescope, although a telescope will make the job a lot easier. From edge-to-edge this galaxy is just 10 arcminutes across (remember there are 60 arcminutes per 1°), so it appears to be pretty small in the sky despite actually being 56,000 light-years across. Using a camera attached to your telescope and long-exposure techniques will reveal the spiral arms in more detail.

Hopefully the rainy nights will be over quick so we can move into clear skies. And finally, the nighttime temperatures are starting to get comfortably warm which will make stargazing more enjoyable. From a lawn chair or blanket in your backyard stare upwards into the depths of space.

It is a humbling thought that we are just a “mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam” among all the other planets, stars, and galaxies in our universe. Try observing the moon and open star clusters, meteors, and M83 this week with that mindset to enhance your stargazing experience – and to perhaps have an existential crisis.

Clear Skies!

What's Up: May 4 - 11, 2022, Jared May