What's Up in the Night Sky

May 2026 - Vol. 30, No. 5

This Month's Night Sky - NOTE: The next paragraph describes the sky as it appears at 10 pm EST (11 pm EDT) near mid- month. The sky also looks this way at 11 pm EST (midnight EDT) during the beginning of the month and at 9 pm EST (10 pm EDT) by month's end.

As May brings the lengthening days, the hours of nightly observation decrease as well, it is always with a bit of sadness that we say good-bye to the Winter and Spring constellations, Gemini, Leo, and Virgo. The early evening presence of Arcturus, the second brightest star in the northern sky, reminds us that the bright star clouds of the Milky Way will soon be brightening up those dark evenings when the Moon is small enough to allow us to truly enjoy those galactic treasures. As the evening turns to morning, the bright stars of the summer triangle follow until just before sunrise, the Milky Way is at the zenith, high overhead. Long twilight hours come to the northern hemisphere.

MERCURY is at superior conjunction on May 14, reappears low in the evening sky the third week of the month. VENUS will be visible in the evening sky, near Aldebaran and the Hyades as the month opens and moving toward Jupiter as the month progresses. MARS will begin to appear in the morning twilight for northern observers. JUPITER, in the evening sky, will be 9 degrees away from Venus by month's end. Look for a nice conjunction with Venus on May 19. SATURN, in the morning sky, will favor the southern hemisphere. URANUS, too close to the Sun to be seen, reaches solar conjunction on the 22nd. NEPTUNE, near Saturn, will not be visible from the northern hemisphere until late in the month.

Review how to determine Angular Measurement.

Calendar of Events

NOTE: For those observers not in the ET zone, convert the calendar times to your zone's time by subtracting one hour for CT, two for MT and three for PT. Don't forget to adjust for Daylight Savings Time when necessary by subtracting one hour from your planisphere's time. Dawn and dusk times must also be corrected. See your local newspaper, TV news, or cable TV's Weather Channel for sunrise and sunset times or check with the U.S. Naval observatory. Unfortunately some of these events may occur during daylight hours in your area.

DATE	EVENT
01	This month's full Moon is often called the "Flower Moon" after the flowers that bloom in the season of Spring in North America.
04	Moon at apogee. Alpha Scorpii, Antares, 0.5 deg. N. of Moon, occultation from S. South America, S. Georgia and the S. Sandwich Is., extreme northwest Antarctica, south S. Africa, and Kerguelen Is.
06	Eta Aquarid meteor peak. The shower produces up to 60 meteors at its peak. Dust particles for this meteor shower are generated by Halley's comet as it approaches the Sun on its 76-year orbit.
14	Mercury in superior conjunction.
15	Venus at perihelion. Mars 5 deg. S. of Moon.
17	Moon at perigee, expect large tides.
18	Mercury at perihelion.
19	Venus 3.0 deg. S. of Moon.
20	Jupiter 3 deg. S. of Moon.
21	Moon 0.8 deg. N. of the Beehive (M-44). Venus 0.8 deg N. of M-35.
22	Uranus in conjunction with the Sun.
23	Alpha Leonis, Regulus, 0.1 deg. N. of Moon, occultation from S. eastern Asia, N. SE Asia, Micronesia, most of Melanesia, and W. and central Polynesia.
27	Alpha Virginis, Spica, 1.9 deg. N. of Moon.
28	Mercury at greatest heliocentric lat. N.
31	A second full Moon in a month is called a "Blue Moon". It will occur when the Moon is near apogee (June 1). Alpha Scorpii, Antares, 0.4 deg. N. of Moon, occultation from most of Melanesia, E. Australia, New Zealand, and S. part of S. America.

Lunar Almanac for May 2026

Phases of the Moon	Phase and Date(s)	Best viewed before local midnight
	New 16	Deep Space Objects
	1st. Qtr 23	Planets & Moon
	Full 01 and 31	Moon
	Last Qtr 09	Deep Space & Planets

Topic of the month: Canes Venatici: Dogs of the Northern Sky

The northern sky is a dark place, far from the bright star clouds of the Milky Way. Here be dragons, bears, and hunters. The northern hunters also brought their hunting dogs, in the form of a little constellation known as Canes Venatici. This constellation was introduced by Johannes Hevelius in 1690. Visually, the constellation appears to the naked eye as two stars beneath the the handle of the "Big Dipper", the brighter of the two is known as Cor Coroli, or heart of the king. It is a 2.9 magnitude star accompanied by a 5.5 magnitude companion located about 150 light years away. This double star is very easy to detect in a small telescope. The fainter star is called Chara, a yellow 4.3 magnitude star.

finder chart for Canes Venatici

Canes Venatici is near the north galactic pole of the Milky Way. Because of its position, it is the home of many external galaxies, the brightest Messier galaxies can be located by using the finder chart. The most famous galaxy in this part of the sky is known as M51,also known as the Whirlpool galaxy, actually a pair of interacting galaxies (NGC 5194 and 5195) that are best observed in a larger telescope, 10 inches or better. Its spiral structure was first observed by Lord Rosse using a 72-in telescope in 1845. At mag 8.4 it is bright enough to be seen by smaller instruments, even binoculars, but it will appear as a fuzzy patch.

The galaxy M63, near an 8th mag star is tilted about 30 deg from face on, is sometimes called the "Sunflower" nebula. Another bright galaxy in Canes Venatici is M94, another face on spiral. this galaxy has a large central bulge and is tightly wound and will appear as a round object at a dark site. The last Messier galaxy on this chart, M106 is also a Seyfert galaxy, that emits x-rays.

Another feature of Canes Venatici is the globular star cluster M3, that is not seen in the chart above that was generated by Stellarium, a free open source planetarium program. The above image was created by Dawn Jenkins, using Stellarium and a graphic editing program. The globular M3 is found on a line between Cor Coroli and Arcturus.

The dark galactic pole must share the night with the star clouds of the northern Milky Way, that rise into the night sky just before midnight at the beginning of the month.. The bright presence of those clouds of galactic stars and dust will make it hard to find the dark galaxies of Spring as we move into Summer.

--See You Under the Stars!
Astra for Astra's Almanac