One of the many celestial wonders seen through the telescope at MMA's Loines Observatory on Nantucket.
The MMA's telescope was installed on a beautiful day April 2007.
The staff of the MMA stands in front of Maria Mitchell's Observatory on Vestal St. Learn more about Maria Mitchell's lasting legacy.
The Nantucket Sky in May 2008
The Stargazer Report is a monthly report courtesy of Vladimir Strelnitski, the Director of Astronomy at the Maria Mitchell Association.
(All times are given in Eastern Standard Time)
The Sun
(for the first and last days of the month)
Sunrise: 5:37 am; 5:10 am
Sunset: 7:38 pm; 8:07 pm
The Moon
New Moon: May 5, 08:18 am
First Quarter: May 11, 11:47 pm
Full Moon: May 19, 10:11 pm
Last Quarter: May 27, 10:57 pm
Planets
Mercury: An unusually good opportunity to view this elusive planet with your unaided eyes in the first half of the month. Look for it in the western part of the sky after sunset. You can spot the bright planet as early as a half hour after sunset, rather high above the horizon, after which you will have less than an hour before the planet sets. In the second half of the month, it will be an excellent object for observations with binoculars; the planet will be closer to the Earth and thus larger in angular size, and, while moving closer and closer to the line connecting the Earth and the Sun, it will look more and more like a crescent.
Venus: Too close to the Sun to be observed
Mars: An evening object, in the south-western part of the sky, in Gemini (Castor and Pollux, two almost equally bright stars). It is farther and farther from the Earth, so its disk seen through a telescope or binoculars is relatively small, almost four times smaller than at its opposition.
Jupiter: A very bright morning object in Sagittarius. Rises after midnight and is seen higher and higher in the south-eastern part of the sky until sunrise.
Saturn: An all-night object. In the evening, it is seen high in the south, very close (“half-fist” of an extended arm) to Leo’s brightest star Regulus. Come to see this planet with its gorgeous rings and moons through our 8” Clark telescope at Loines Observatory, at any scheduled open night!
Meteor Showers
A medium-strength Eta-Aquarids shower will produce a visible meteor about every three minutes in the night of May 4/5. The best conditions for meteor observations are after midnight until morning. You can see a meteor from this shower at any part of the sky, but the radiant of this shower (the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to originate) is in Aquarius (the Water Jar), which rises too late in the morning.
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