CDAA

Written by David Pugh

In the night sky this coming month the planet Mars passes very close to the Beehive star cluster M44, Venus is a dazzling pre-dawn object, and there is a chance to see the brightest asteroid Vesta at opposition.

Mercury, the inner-most planet, is not on view this month. Dazzling Venus (mag -4.4) may be seen low down in the eastern pre-dawn sky. Mars, the red planet, (mag +1.1), is well placed in the south in Cancer. Between the 3rd and 7th May it passes just north of the Beehive star cluster M44, well worth a look or to image. On the 4th it lies just 22' north of the cluster. A young crescent Moon is seen soon after sunset lying between M44 and Mars though low down in the west..

Jupiter, king of the planets, (mag -2.0), hangs low over the western horizon at sunset, fading into twilight by late May. Although the ringed planet Saturn emerges into the pre-dawn twilight it is not observable until the end of May low in the east. The ice giant Uranus is unobservable this month, whilst Neptune, the furthest planet, is a difficult object to observe in the gathering pre-dawn eastern twilight.

The brightest asteroid Vesta reaches opposition at mag +5.7 on May 2nd. It can therefore be observed with binoculars all month but best when the Moon is not bright such as around opposition. Vesta lies in northern Libra at the start of May but soon moves westwards into Virgo. You can find its position using Stellarium freeware or in the May astro magazines.

The Eta Aquarid meteor shower is best from the southern hemisphere but we can still pick up a few meteors from the UK. It peaks on May 5/6 but as the radiant near the "Water Jar" asterism in Aquarius does not rise until 2.40am you will need to be an early riser!

Still nothing happening concerning the possible outburst of the recurrent nova T Coronae Borealis currently at mag 10 as I have been keeping an eye on this area with binoculars.. If it does outburst in the next few weeks, it lies below the handle of the Plough in Corona Borealis. It last outburst in 1946 reaching mag 3.0 and mag 2.0 in 1866 when it was discovered. It is nicknamed the "Blaze Star"

All of the deep sky objects mentioned last month in Cancer and Leo are still on view but it is best to observe them as soon as it gets dark. However, now that the nights are drawing out we will run out of true astronomical darkness by the third week in May and will then be in twilight conditions until late July. This time of year is very much the "Realm of the Galaxies" . This is because we are facing away from our Milky Way spiral arm toward the north celestial pole and the Virgo super cluster of thousands of galaxies of which our own "Local Group" is an outlying small galaxy group. So, this month I am concentrating on the galaxies in Virgo which are best observed in the first part of the month when the Moon does not intrude with its glare too much. The central area of the Virgo cluster is known as Markarian's Chain, a curving chain of around 10 galaxies starting in the west with the giant elliptical galaxies M84 (mag 9.3) and M86 (mag 9.2). Curving NE we then come to a pair of interacting mag 10 galaxies nicknamed "The Eyes"as their bright centres appear to stare at you! Then, if you head SE you come to M87 (mag 8.6), the most massive elliptical galaxy in the whole Virgo Cluster and who's super massive black hole was successfully imaged a while back. Then much further south on the border of Virgo with Corvus is the magnificent Sombrero Galaxy M104 (mag 8.3) with a dark lane running across its core.

Finally I can not leave this area without travelling further north of Virgo to the faint constellation of Coma Berenices to find NGC 4565 (mag 9.8). If you have not seen this famous spiral galaxy before you are in for a treat. It is what I call a "wow" galaxy in that it is a large edge on spiral nicknamed the "Needle Galaxy" and generally regarded as the best edge on galaxy in the whole sky. For all of these galaxies obviously a larger telescope will show more detail but you do need a dark sky, good dark adaption, and use averted vision to observe them. With a small scope or even a telephoto lens, you could try imaging an area like Markarian's Chain if you are using a tracking mount.and stack together a number of images using software such as the freeware DeepSkyStacker.

Good Hunting and I hope to see you next Thursday evening at the society's monthly meeting.

Best Regards

David