What's in the Sky Tonight?

MAY 2025

May 4: Conjunction of the Moon and mars

May 5/6: Eta Aquarid Meteors
The Moon will be mostly illuminated, which may make the meteors harder to spot this year.

May 12: Micro Flower Moon
May's Full Moon is known as the Flower Moon after all the flowers that bloom around this time in the Northern Hemisphere. For the second month in a row, this Full Moon is a Micromoon.

May 22: Conjunction of the Moon and Saturn

May 24: Conjunction of the Moon and Venus

May 27: New Moon

May 28: Conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter

ASTRONOMY BINOCULARS
A mini telescope you can take anywhere

If you love sky gazing, you have to have a pair of astronomy binoculars! Binoculars are a fantastic alternative to telescopes—inexpensive, lightweight, and portable. For city dwellers where there is a lot of light pollution, binoculars are essential if you want to see much of anything.

Binoculars enlarge and brighten the beauty and immensity of the night sky. You can see the detail of the moon's craters, the phases of Venus, the moons and stripes of Jupiter, the awesome jewels that dot the Milky Way, nebulae, star clusters, and comets when they're passing near.

Our favorite astonomy binoculars is the Celestron SkGiyMaster Giant 15x70 Binoculars. These are excellent as well:

ANOTHER GREAT ASTRONOMICAL TOOL:

THE PLANISPHERE
A year-round, real-time sky map

A planisphere is a rotating star chart that allows you to dial in the entire visible sky for any day and time of the year and with great precision. It has been called an analog star computer and was considered magical in ancient times.

Planispheres show the brightest stars, constellations, notable galaxies and nebulae, as well as the path of the Milky Way. The plane of the ecliptic is also shown, which reveals the pathway of the planets as they appear to move across the night sky.

Purchase a planisphere for $7.95