Focus on the planets

Mercury is at its best and brightest for the entire year during the early part of May. Starting May 1, watch the innermost planet as it climbs on the west-northwest horizon in company with Saturn and Jupiter.

Venus is the spectacular morning star and may be found low in the east about an hour before sunrise.

Mars is back in a big way, rising low on the southeastern horizon around midnight, as May opens. The Red Planet gains in brilliance all month to eventually outshine giant Jupiter.

Jupiter may be found low in the northwest about 40 minutes after sunset where it is the brightest star in that portion of the sky.

Saturn follows Jupiter into the evening sky taking up residence to Jupiter’s lower right. Saturn will disappear into the glare of sunset by late May, soon to be followed by Jupiter, and marking the pair’s last appearance in the night sky this year.

Uranus and Neptune are still among the stars of Capricornus where a good telescope and a finder’s chart will be needed to spot them.

Pluto is in Ophiuchus and visible at the same time as Mars.

Mars is easy to spot, but it will require an 8-inch telescope at the minimum to find the tiny speck that is our most distant planet.

Our Celestial Neighborhood

NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft began its journey to the Red Planet on March 7, its mission to explore the Martian surface and also to rescue the space agency’s tattered reputation from its previous attempts to explore the planet most like Earth.

In late October, Odyssey will reach Mars where it will study minerals in the rocks and search for water over the next 21/2 years. “NASA’s main goal here is looking for life. And life means looking for water,” said Arizona State University geologist Phil Christenson in a recent Associated Press story by Marcia Dunn.

Odyssey follows the embarrassing failures of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander, both in 1999. The first was because of a mix-up of metric and English measurement units and the other was because of a premature engine shutdown. Congress, which holds the purse strings for future missions, will be watching the Mars Odyssey closely.

“This mission has to succeed, there’s no question,” said Ed Weiler, head of NASA’s space science office, in the AP story.

May events

1 Sunrise, 5:26 a.m.; sunset, 7:40 p.m. May Day or Beltane, the cross-quarter day marking the midpoint between the spring equinox and summer solstice. The moon is at perigee or closest approach to the Earth.

4 Mercury is at its brightest on the northwest horizon. Note Saturn and Jupiter to Mercury’s left with Aldebaran sandwiched between the two giant planets.

7 Full moon, 9:53 a.m. The full moon of May is called the Planting Moon or Milk Moon.

10 During the early morning hours, Mars is the fiery-orange star to the lower left of the moon. Tonight check out the northwestern horizon about an hour after sunset where Mercury is found between Saturn and Jupiter with red Aldebaran just to the lower left.

13 The sun enters Taurus on the ecliptic.

14 The moon is at apogee or greatest distance from the Earth.

15 Moon in last quarter, 6:12 a.m. Venus is brilliant on the eastern predawn horizon.

20 The sun enters the astrological sign of Gemini but, astronomically, is still in Taurus.

23 New moon, 10:47 p.m.

29 Moon in first quarter, 6:10 p.m.

31 Sunrise, 4:53 a.m.; sunset, 8:13 p.m. If you are up about midnight, check out brilliant orange-red Mars on the southeast horizon. The star grouping to its right is Scorpius and to the left is Sagittarius.