StarWatch: See Moon's Rendezvous With Venus

By Gary Becker

StarWatch 871 for the week of May 5, 2013

“It's May! It’s May, the lusty month of May! That lovely month when everyone goes blissfully astray…”  That’s Guinevere singing about one of the joyful perks regarding life at Camelot, in mythical England where by law the seasons had regimented time slots, could never be too severe, and the rain could never fall till after sundown.

No wonder the empire fell. No astronomer in his right mind would ever want to live in a place like that.

Yet in the real world, May produces some of the most spectacular nights of the year. Gorgeous warm days with turquoise skies blend seamlessly into transparent, temperate nights where the stars seem so close you can almost reach out and touch them. 

I’m hoping for that kind of an evening on Friday, May 10, when a very skinny, razor sharp crescent moon will be a scant two degrees from the goddess Venus.  

The rendezvous takes place in the WNW with the moon only 11 degrees from the sun, so the event will only be visible in a rather strong twilight and with the use of binoculars.

While the Pleiades will only be about six degrees from the moon at this time, I doubt that the bright sky conditions will allow anyone to view this star cluster.  

Although the East Coast is the favored location, by the time of sunset along the West Coast, the moon will be just over a degree higher in the sky, making its visibility a little more probable.  

The key to assuring success is to have a location which has a flawless western horizon. This is where owning a penthouse apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with a clear shot across the Hudson would come in handy. Most of us, unfortunately, will simply have to hunt down an appropriate site.  

Be there with binoculars by sundown and begin to scan the horizon to the left of sunset. You should see Venus first. To Venus’ left and slightly below, the moon should emerge 10-15 minutes later.  

Clear skies to all!

© Gary A. Becker—www.astronomy.org

Moravian College Astronomy