Lyra's leading stars form a little equilateral triangle with Vega as one corner, and a parallelogram dangling from the triangle's bottom. Look for its faint little constellation Lyra, the Lyre, hanging down from it with its bottom canted to the right. ■ Spring is advancing, and Vega is now nicely up in the east-northeast after dark. That's first-magnitude Regulus, Leo's forefoot. After dark, spot the brightest star fairly high in the west-southwest. ■ This is the time of year when Leo the Lion starts walking downward toward the west, on his way to departing into the sunset in early summer. (Right-click on it and choose "open in a new tab"). (Here, the brightest stars upper right and lower left of the "Hydra" label are Gamma and Pi Hydrae, respectively.)Īt full size, this image by Akira Fujii shows stars as faint as 10th magnitude. The Crow is traditionally eyeing Spica as if to steal it, while riding on the back of dim, far-sprawling Hydra the Sea Serpent - near his tail end. Lower left of Spica, by a fist or a bit more, is the four-star pattern of Corvus the Crow, as imaged here: Bluish-white Spica and sail-shaped Corvus cross the south right after dark. Lower right of Arcturus by about three fists is springtime Spica, a definite color contrast with it (binoculars help). Especially if it's a ginger-ale drop in the orange light of the setting Sun. ■ Arcturus, a yellow-orange giant of spectral type K1.5 III, is sometimes described as ginger-ale colored. The kite is 23° long: about two fists at arm's length. The kite currently extends upper left from Arcturus, with its head bent upward. ■ Arcturus, high in the southeast, forms the pointy end of the long, narrow Kite asterism: the central part of Bo otes, the Cowherd. Watch them all cross the sky together tonight. The head stars of Scorpius are farther to the Moon's upper right. ■ The Moon, now a day after full, rises in late twilight with orange Antares just a couple degrees to its lower right. May 15th EDT), courtesy of Gianluca Masi and the Virtual Telescope Project. More occultation info.)Ĭloudy on the big night? A livestream of the eclipse from various places around the world starts at 2:15 May 16th UT (10:15 p.m. The first two letters in each entry are the country abbreviation. (The timetable has two long sections, first for the disappearance, then the reappearance. Will people with video cameras on their telescopes again record the pinpoint flash of a meteoroid strike on the Moon's dark surface?Īlso: the edge of the dark Moon will occult the double star S672, magnitudes 6.3 and 8.9, separation 11 arcseconds, for telescope users in most of the US and Canada map and timetables. This eclipse is expected to be on the dark side use the rating scale here. For instance, estimate the eclipsed Moon's brightness or darkness on the Danjon Scale. For lots more, see Witness a Total Lunar Eclipse on Sunday May 15–16. The Moon will be near the starry head of Scorpius. Full timetable here.Įurope will catch mainly the final partial stage of the eclipse, before and/or during dawn on the 16th. Eastern Daylight Time total eclipse begins 11:29 p.m. ■ Total eclipse of the Moon tonight! The full Moon will turn into an eerie, luminous rotten orange among the stars for most of North America except the far northwest, and for all of Central and South America. They appear so bright because each is at least 60 times as luminous as the Sun, and because they're all relatively nearby: 37, 25, and 42 light-years from us, respectively. ■ Three zero-magnitude stars shine after dark in May: Arcturus high in the southeast, Vega lower in the northeast, and Capella in the northwest. Spot brighter Arcturus 30° to their upper left. ■ The almost-full Moon this evening shines in Virgo, with 1st-magnitude Spica to its lower right (by about 4°).
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