May 2021

Bright Sky Digest 

Return of Annual Camping Trips

Upcoming Events

Stargazing in Seattle

Bob Mulford

The elusive planet Mercury will be visible in the evening sky for most of May. As seen from the Earth, Mercury is never far in the sky from the Sun and sets shortly after Sunset. The best time to see it is during dusk when the sky has just begun to get dark. Begin looking for Mercury at about 9:00 PM in early May and 9:30 PM near the end of May, low in the west-northwest and about eight to ten degrees above the horizon. 
A thin crescent Moon, two days past new, passes within five degrees of Mercury on May 13^th. Two days later, a slightly fatter crescent Moon will be located about a degree to the right of Mars. 
After May 25^th, Mercury quickly slips toward the glare of the Sun, but Venus will have emerged from behind the Sun and joined the show. At dusk on the evening of the 28^th, Mercury and Venus will be at an altitude of six degrees and within one-half degree of each other. By the 31^st, Mercury is less than three degrees above the horizon as civil twilight begins and will be difficult to see, but Venus will remain as an evening star, albeit quite low in the west, until January 2022.
There is still more to see this month. Early in the morning of May 26^th, a total lunar eclipse will be visible from the West Coast of the USA. Unfortunately, the total phase begins at 4:11 AM. This is only 30 minutes before the beginning of morning civil twilight, and the Moon is barely 9 degrees above the southwest horizon and sinking. Still, total lunar eclipses are rare and we are lucky that it is visible at all. If the pre-dawn sky is clear and you have a good horizon toward the southwest, it’s well worth getting up, going outside, and looking up.

Member Spotlight