These notes are intended to provide a casual skywatcher or someone already into amateur astronomy living on the East Coast of Australia with a short summary of what is happening in the night sky in May 2011. Instructions on how to obtain customised satellite viewing information for your location can be found here. If you find this page of interest, you may wish to follow this website automatically using Twitter and the sites RSS Feed.
Planets this month (May 2011)
Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter are visible for the entire month of May in the pre-dawn sky low above the Eastern horizon. Detailed finder charts for the entire month can be found here.
Saturn is visible high above the North Eastern horizon once twilight ends.
Uranus rises around 3pm mid-month and a telescope will be required to easily identify the planet.
Neptune rises around Midnight mid-month and a telescope will be required to easily identify the planet.
Individual sky events (May 2011)
All times listed for the AEST time zone (U.T. plus 10 hours). Add one hour to times listed if your state or territory follows daylight savings time.
May 1: Venus and Mercury to the right of the Moon. Morning pre-dawn sky.
May 1: Mars and Jupiter close. Look low above the Eastern horizon in the morning pre-dawn sky
May 2: Jupiter and Mars located to the right of, and above the Moon. Morning predawn sky.
May 3: 4.51 pm New Moon
May 6: 11 pm eta-Aquarid meteor shower peaks (produced by dust from Halley’s Comet). Further information can be found here: http://www.imo.net/calendar/2011#eta
May 8: 5 am Mercury reaches its greatest elongation West (27 degrees). Morning pre-dawn sky.
May 11: Venus at greatest latitude South.
May 11: 6.33 am First Quarter Moon
May 11: Venus, Jupiter and Venus close. Look above the Eastern horizon. Morning pre-dawn sky.
May 14: Saturn located below the Moon. Evening sky.
May 15: 9 pm Moon at perigee (closest to the Earth in its orbit at 362,135 kilometers).
May 17: 9.09 pm Full Moon
May 19: Mercury at greatest latitude South
May 20 – 23: Mercury, Venus and Mars close. Morning predawn sky. Look low above the Eastern horizon in the morning pre-dawn sky.
May 25: 4.52 am Last Quarter Moon
May 27: 8 pm Moon at apogee (furthest from the Earth in its orbit at 405,003 km).
May 30: Jupiter located above and to the right of the crescent Moon. Morning pre-dawn sky.
May 31: Mars located to the right of, and above the slim crescent Moon. Morning pre-dawn sky.
May 31: Venus located to the right of the slim crescent Moon. Morning pre-dawn sky.
For Further Information
Planet and Moon Rise/Set Times
Planet and Moon rise/set times for 2011 can be found here on this website.
Customised Astronomy & Satellite Viewing information
Information on how to obtain customised astronomy & satellite viewing information for your location can be found here on this website.
