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Tuesday, May 02, 2023

 

Thursday May 4 to Thursday May 11

The Full Moon is Saturday, May 6, with a penumbral Lunar eclipse on the morning of the 6th. Saturn is climbing in the morning sky. Venus is prominent in the evening twilight and starts the week making a triangle with Elnath and Zeta Taurii, the stars that make the horns of the Bull. Bright Mars forms a triangle with the bright stars Castor and Pollux and on the10th they form a line. Eta Aquariids meteor shower starts and peaks on the weekend.

The Full Moon is Saturday, May 6, with a penumbral Lunar eclipse in the morning .

Morning sky on Saturday, May 6 as seen from Adelaide at 05:29 ACST, (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Saturn is below Capricorn and above the eta Aquariid meteor shower radiant.





   

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

 Evening sky on Tuesday, May 9 as seen from Adelaide at 18:23ACST, (60 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Venus is close to the open cluster M25.  The binocular view 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 Wednesday, May 10 as seen from Adelaide at 18:52 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).   

Morning sky on Wednesday, May 6 looking east as seen from Adelaide at 5:00 am local time in South Australia showing the eta Aquariid meteor shower radiant as a star burst. Similar views will be seen elsewhere at the equivalent local time (click to embiggen).


The eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks on the late evening/early morning of  5-7 May in Australia, however the rising Moon reduces the rates on these dates, the 5th and 6th are a reasonable nights for viewing with about a meteor every six minutes. For more details see my eta Aqauriid viewing page

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time. 

 

Morning sky on Saturday May 6 looking west as seen from Adelaide at 02:52 ACST. Similar views will be seen elsewhere in Australia at the equivalent local time. (click to embiggen). Note the subtle darkening of the Moon in the inset.

On the morning of May 6 there is a penumbral eclipse of the Moon, where the Moon glides through the outer segment of the shadow cast by Earth. There will be a faint, but visible, darkening of the Moons northern regions.

Unfortunately, this all occurs in the early morning, so you will need to get up in the early hours to see it. However, to eclipse aficionados the subtle darkening of the Moons bright light to a pearly glow is quiet beautiful. It is also the morning of the eta Aquariid meteor shower peak, so you can combine the two events if your are careful about your night vision.

All of Australia will see this penumbral eclipse from start to maximum. For the East Coast Moon the eclipse begins at 1:12 am AEST, maximum eclipse is at 3:23 am , the eclipse ends at 5:34 am.

For the Central states the eclipse begins at 12:42 am ACST, maximum eclipse is at 2:53 am , the eclipse ends at 5:04 am .

For Western Australia the eclipse begins at 11:23 pm AWST on the 5th, maximum eclipse is at 1:23 am, the eclipse ends at 3:34 am.

 
Whole sky on Saturday, April 6 as seen from Adelaide at 18:55 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.

Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are another wealth of binocular objects to discover. The full moon washes many of these beauties out.

   

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

 

Mercury returns to the morning twilight, but will be almost impossible to see. 

Venus climbs higher in the twilight and forms a line with the stars Elnath and zeta Taurii.

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

Jupiter is now lost in the twilight.

Saturn climbs higher in the morning skies. 

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/


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