Night sky in may

[Astro-Nova]

My parents will be visiting me in the beginning of May.

Apart from Saturn and the Moon, Im not sure what else to show them as Orion nebula and Jupiter will be off the list around that time of the year...

Anyone got any tips? We might also go to dark skies, just to point that out, so any tips for LP skies and dark skies are welcome

[sologuitarist61]

Why don't you download 'Stellarium' off the web - its free - and you can then wind through the dates to the beginning of May and see for yourself what is there to be viewed. It is really handy for that!

[Astro-Nova]

oh why have I not thought of that, cheers!

[perrin6]

Remember the sky won't get dark until quite late in the evening in early May.

M3 a great globular in Canes Venatici

M13 the brightest globular from the UK - Hercules

M57 the ring nebula fairly low in the East

M104 the sombrero galaxy low in the South in Virgo; this is a good galaxy to show people as it is quite bright and a nice shape. Tell them the photons entering their eye have been travelling in space for 29 million years !

M81 & m82 galaxies in ursa major - should look nice from a dark site

M94 the black eye galaxy in Canes Venatici - you can see the 'black eye' in an 8 inch

NGC 6543 the cats eye nebula - a small but bright planetary neb high up in Draco.

Remember to give information to enhance their experience and get them imagining as many people are not impressed by 'faint fuzzies'

[richbyers]

id also put in my vote for stellarium, best thing there is, otherwise you could use a planisphere if you have one

[BAZ Senior]

Here's a useful site, stick in your coordinates and time.

Tick the box's for objects you wish to look for.

Tonight's Sky Main Page

The limiting magnitude for your scope would depend on where you are observing from, around 10 for a bright city location, 11 for a suburban one, and around 13 for a dark rural one.

Make sure you don't have all the box's ticked at once, as it will drag up thousands of objects, too many for the memory to handle.

I think you should save Saturn until last, it's a show stopper!

Have a good one.

[Graeme]

Here's a useful site, stick in your coordinates and time.

Tick the box's for objects you wish to look for.

Tonight's Sky Main Page

That's a great site, cheers!

I've been using Horizon View on Fourmilab.com for a couple of years now. It's good for working out what's going to happen when but it doesn't print out a plan for the evening!

Graeme

[Pug]

+1 for tonights sky and stellarium

[661-pete]

As the Summer Triangle will be coming into view why not look out for the Dumbbell M27?

As well as the Globs M13 (already mentioned) and M92, there are several good globs lower down the sky in Ophiuchus. Worth having a go at M10 and M12 which lie fairly close together in the sky.

Low in the south (if you have a reasonable view) go for the Wild Duck M11. Always good in a small or medium 'scope.

And don't forget the lovely and easy binary Albireo in Cygnus.

For binocular viewing show the Coathanger (Brocchi's cluster) also in the Summer Triangle.

[Double Kick Drum]

Remember the sky won't get dark until quite late in the evening in early May.

M3 a great globular in Canes Venatici

M13 the brightest globular from the UK - Hercules

M57 the ring nebula fairly low in the East

M104 the sombrero galaxy low in the South in Virgo; this is a good galaxy to show people as it is quite bright and a nice shape. Tell them the photons entering their eye have been travelling in space for 29 million years !

M81 & m82 galaxies in ursa major - should look nice from a dark site

M94 the black eye galaxy in Canes Venatici - you can see the 'black eye' in an 8 inch

NGC 6543 the cats eye nebula - a small but bright planetary neb high up in Draco.

Remember to give information to enhance their experience and get them imagining as many people are not impressed by 'faint fuzzies'

Agree with all of this list. Small point of order - M64 in Coma Berenices is known as the Black Eye galaxy. M94 in Canes Venatici is equally as good, however.

A couple of other bright globular clusters are M5 in Serpens and M92 in Hercules.

[perrin6]

Yes M64 ! - ( as Captain Mainwaring would say ' Ah yes, very good corporal - I was waiting for someone to notice that ' )