Astroblog: Thursday May 11 to Thursday May 18

Monday, May 08, 2023

Thursday May 11 to Thursday May 18

The Last Quarter Moon is Friday, May 12. Saturn is climbing in the morning sky and is close to the waning moon on the 14th. The thin crescent Moon forms a triangle with Jupiter and Mercury in the morning sky on the 18th. Venus is prominent in the evening twilight. Venus leaves Taurus and enters Gemini, and is close to eta Geminorum on the 17th. Bright Mars forms a line with the bright stars Castor and Pollux.

The Last Quarter Moon is Friday, May 12.The moon is at perigee, when it is closest to the earth, on the 11th.

Morning sky on Sunday, May 14 as seen from Adelaide at 05:34 ACST, (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Saturn is close to the waning Moon with Jupiter just above the horizon.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes before sunrise).

Morning sky on Thursday, May 18 as seen from Adelaide at 06:07 ACST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Jupiter, Mercury and the thin crescent Moon form a triangle.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise).

Evening sky on Wednesday, May 17 as seen from Adelaide at 18:20ACST, (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Venus is close to the star eta Geminorum (Mebsuta). The telescopic view of Venus is shown in the inset.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes after sunset).

Evening sky on Saturday, May 13 as seen from Adelaide at 18:50 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Venus and Mars are visible. Mars forms a line with the bright stars Castor and Pollux.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset).

Whole sky on Saturday, May 13 as seen from Adelaide at 18:50 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Mars is visible above the north western horizon and Venus is setting in the west.

Orion the Hunter, is prominent along with Sirius low in the north-western sky. Scorpius is rising in the east

Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are another wealth of binocular objects to discover.

Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

Mercury returns to the morning twilight, The thin crescent Moon forms a triangle with Jupiter and Mercury in the morning sky on the 18th.

Venus climbs higher in the twilight. Venus leaves Taurus and enters Gemini, and is close to eta Geminorum on the 17th.

Mars forms a line with the bright stars Castor and Pollux.

Jupiter returns to the morning twilight. The thin crescent Moon forms a triangle with Jupiter and Mercury in the morning sky on the 18th.

Saturn climbs higher in the morning skies and is close to the waning moon on the 14th.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/

Labels: weekly sky