SKY GUIDE: This map represents the night sky as it appears over Maine during May. The stars are shown as they appear at 9:30 p.m. early in the month, at 9:30 p.m. at midmonth, and at 8:30 p.m. at month’s end. Sadly this month, no planets will be visible in the evening sky. To use the map, hold it vertically and turn it so that the direction you are facing is at the bottom. Sky Chart prepared by Seth Lockman
The month of May is named after Maia, the Roman goddess of the earth who is also the mother of Mercury and the daughter of Atlas. We are halfway into spring now and our landscape is just beginning to be transformed by the hue of fresh grass and the tender light green leaves appearing once again on the trees. Many more birds will return this month and the spring peepers and wood frogs are getting louder as they add their sonic contributions to the reawakening earth in spring.
On April 8, the moon, sun and planets in our solar system put on a show, as about 60 million people experienced a much-awaited total solar eclipse. Over 30 million people already lived right in its narrow path, and Maine was very lucky and had some of the best weather in the whole country for this epic and rare event.
I was at a wonderful scenic overlook in Rangeley, where I spent eight great hours of making new friends and conversing with a few of the 5,000 or so people that I shared that scenic spot with for that unforgettable day. I watched an eclectic village grow all around me on that scenic overlook, a true microcosm of the humans on Earth.
Watching this celestial spectacle unfold all day long really gave me a good sense of how the earth rotated and moved through space and how the sun moved from east to west due to our rotation at about the speed of sound, even as the moon was continually moving from west to east at about three times the speed of sound rushing toward its inevitable yet extremely brief encounter with the sun roughly every year and a half.
This great spot with an altitude of 1,700 feet and about 50 miles of visibility to the west across the mountains and lakes was also right on the Appalachian Trail, just 200 miles from its final destination on Katahdin, another perfect site for viewing this eclipse in Maine. The anticipation grew palpable as the big moment approached. The sun was slowly being covered by the moon for over an hour, but then everything happened very quickly.
A deafening roar of appreciation went up from the crowd as the diamond ring flashed from the sun and plunged everything and everyone into darkness. I stared right into the heart of this evanescent ever-changing living corona with my binoculars for a few minutes to enhance the experience and better appreciate the nature of this mysterious two million degree atmosphere of the sun that is always present but seldom seen.
Then, just as suddenly as it began, it was all over. A blinding flash of brilliant sunlight pierced the darkness, the second diamond ring on the other side as the moon continued on its journey past the sun. All the surroundings returned nearly back to normal even though the sun was still 99% covered. A little sunlight goes a long way. Most of the people immediately started packing up and vacated this beautiful scenic overlook. Everyone present that day did attain indelible memories of the greatest spectacle that nature can throw at us without any damaging effects like volcanoes, earthquakes, tidal waves, hurricanes and tornadoes.
All the normal highlights of any given month will always pale in comparison to such a rare event like a total solar eclipse, but I will cover a few of them here. All the planetary action returns to the morning sky, as we will lose Jupiter in the evening sky just a few days into May. The King of the planets, 10 times bigger than Earth and still 10 times smaller than the sun, will be in conjunction with the sun on May 18, and then it will just reappear in the morning sky next month.
Venus, which was visible just to the right and below the sun when it was covered during the eclipse at about the same distance that Jupiter was visible to the left and above the sun, is now also too close to the sun to be visible at night. It will approach superior conjunction with the sun in mid-June when it is fully illuminated but not at its brightest, since it is so much farther away than when it reached inferior conjunction. Then, Venus will return to our evening sky in July.
Saturn will be the first to rise in the morning sky about an hour before sunrise in Aquarius, followed closely by Mars in Pisces. Then, keep following the ecliptic and you will spot Mercury low on the horizon. A very slender waning crescent moon will join Mercury on May 6 about 40 minutes before sunrise. Neptune is half way between Saturn and Mars now, but you would need a small telescope or good binoculars to see it.
Comet 13P/Olbers should reach eighth magnitude this month, comparable to the Crab Nebula in Taurus, which will be close to this comet. It will also pass through Auriga in the upper part of the Winter Hexagon and very close to some nice open star clusters. There is a recurrent nova in Corona Borealis about 3,000 light years away that should become visible to the naked eye for a few days sometime between now and September. This happens to the star system every 80 years, and it last happened in 1946.
The last good highlight will be the Eta Aquarid meteor shower on May 5. These are tiny sand grain-sized pieces of Halley’s Comet burning up in our atmosphere at about 70 miles up and moving 40 miles per second, or twice as fast as the earth is always orbiting around the sun. You could see about 50 meteors per hour, since it will be new moon. We cross the debris trail of this most famous of all comets a second time each year on Oct. 21, which creates the Orionids. There will be a bonus thrown in this year, as we will pass through a thread of denser material from this comet on May 3. So be sure to look for that if it is clear.
MAY HIGHLIGHTS
May 1: Last quarter moon is at 7:27 a.m.
May 3: The moon passes less than one degree south of Saturn this morning. Pluto is stationary in Capricornus. It spends nearly 21 years in each constellation, since it takes 248 years for one orbit.
May 4: The moon passes near Mars this morning.
May 5: The Eta Aquarid Meteor shower peaks. In 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American in space aboard Freedom 7 on a suborbital flight.
May 6: The moon passes near Mercury this evening.
May 7: New moon is at 11:22 p.m.
May 12: The Adler Planetarium in Chicago opened in 1930, becoming the first planetarium in the western hemisphere.
May 14: George Lucas was born in 1944. He created Star Wars and Indiana Jones. … Skylab was launched in 1973. It crashed back to Earth on July 11, 1979.
May 15: Pierre Curie was born in 1859. He won the Nobel Prize in physics with his wife, Marie, in 1903 for their discovery of radioactivity.
May 23: Full moon is at 9:53 a.m. This is also known as the Flower, Milk or Planting Moon.
May 26: Sally Ride was born in 1951. She became the first American woman in space in 1983.
May 30: Last quarter moon is at 1:13 p.m.
May 31: The moon passes near Saturn again this morning.
Bernie Reim of Wells is co-director of the Astronomical Society of Northern New England.
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