Astroblog: Thursday May 15 to Thursday May 22

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Thursday May 15 to Thursday May 22

The Last Quarter Moon is Tuesday May 20. Jupiter and Mars are visible in the evening sky. Jupiter sets shortly after the sky is fully dark and Mars is lowering in the early evening sky. Look for the constellation Corona Borealis before midnight, the blaze star T Coronae Borealis (TCrB) may go Nova eventually. Saturn, Venus and Mercury are visible in the morning twilight. Some good space station Tiangong passes in the early evening.

The Last Quarter Moon is Tuesday May 20.

Eastern twilight sky on the morning of Saturday, May 17 as seen from Adelaide at 06:03 ACST (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen).

Saturn is visible in the twilight above Venus with Mercury on the horizon below.

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

North-eastern sky on the evening of Saturday, May 17 as seen from Adelaide at 23:00 ACST (click to embiggen)

If you look to the North just before midnight, you will see a prominent bright orange star, Arcturus, if you look northeast you will see a dainty circlet of stars. Corona Borealis, the northern crown. The blaze star T CrB is located on the right-hand side to the circlet, where the line of stars turns down, there are no other bright stars in the region, so when it erupts it will be easily visible. Viewing tips at my T CrB post.

Just above this is the asteroid Vesta, it was at opposition on the 2nd and theoretically visible to the unaided eye. it is roughly between the bright red Star Antares and Arcturus, and two and a half binocular widths from the bright star Beta Librae. See my opposition of Vesta page for more details and charts.

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

North-western sky on Saturday, May 17 as seen from Adelaide at 18:38 ACST (80 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Jupiter is low in the Northwest. The Tiangong Space station (boxed) is passing Canopus. Perth will see a similar pass at 18:41 AWST. Brisbane Sydney and Melbourne see bright passes on the 18th. For exact times see https://heavens-above.com/

For local predictions for your site see the heavens above website https://heavens-above.com/.

North-western sky on Saturday, May 17 as seen from Adelaide at 18:47 ACST (90 minutes after sunset, click to embiggen). Jupiter is low on the horizon in the Northwest. Mars forms a triangle with Procyon and Pollux.

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

Whole sky on Saturday, May 17 as seen from Adelaide at 18:50 ACST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen).

Jupiter is low in the north-west. Mars is in the north.

Orion the hunter is lowering in the north-west as Scorpius rises in the east.

The Southern Cross is rising in the Southern sky. The moon is waning and the fainter clusters and nebula are becoming easier to see.

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

Mercury is lowering in the morning twilight.

Venus is high in the morning twilight. It is below Saturn.

Mars is lowering in the evening sky.

Jupiter is low the the north-western horizon and is setting shortly after when the sky is fully dark.

Saturn is rising in the morning the twilight.

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