Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

Do look up: NASA’s skywatching tips for May

Trevor Mogg
By

NASA is back with its monthly roundup up of celestial treats to spy in the sky. So let’s dive straight in.

What's Up: May 2022 Skywatching Tips from NASA

Mercury

Starting on May 2, the space agency recommends looking west about 45 minutes after sunset to get a glimpse of Mercury, accompanied by a slim crescent moon.

Related Videos

Look to the south of the moon and you should also be able to spot the bright red giant star Aldebaran, which is as bright as Mercury.

Related

NASA notes that this will be the only opportunity to see a planet with the naked-eye in the early evening until August, so be sure not to miss this excellent chance.

Toward the end of the month, you’ll also be able to see Jupiter and Mars as they appear to get increasingly close in the predawn sky. “Their morning meetup culminates in a close conjunction that you can watch on the 28th through the 30th, where they’ll be separated by barely the width of the full moon,” NASA says in its monthly update, adding that it “should look incredible with binoculars, where you can also see Jupiter’s largest moons.”

Lunar eclipse

A map showing the parts of the world where May's lunar eclipse will be viewable.
NASA

Toward the middle of May, folks in the Americas, Europe, and Africa will be able to enjoy a lunar eclipse, weather permitting.

The visible part of the eclipse will start at around 10:30 p.m. ET on May 15. Totality will begin about an hour later and continue for an hour and a half.

“Those in the Eastern U.S. will see the eclipse start with the moon well above the horizon. For the Central U.S., the eclipse starts about an hour and a half after dark, with the moon relatively low in the sky,” NASA said. “On the West Coast of the U.S., the moon rises with totality beginning or already underway, so you’ll want to find a clear view toward the southeast if viewing from there.”

During totality, the moon will offer a dim, reddish hue. Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are safe to look at directly, whether with the naked eye or using binoculars or a telescope.

Coma star cluster

The Coma star cluster in the night sky.
NASA

Speaking of binoculars and telescopes, if you have either of these handy, then this month offers a great chance to view the Coma star cluster.

Described by NASA as a “loose, open star cluster,” Coma is about 300 light-years away and comprises 40 or 50 stars across a part of the sky about three finger-widths wide.

Coma is the second-closest open star cluster to Earth after the Hyades cluster in Taurus, with its brightest stars forming a distinctive Y shape.

To view the cluster, look southward for the constellation Leo. If you have trouble locating it, we recommend using one of the many excellent astronomy apps available, many of which offer an augmented reality functionality that makes it super-easy to spot celestial features.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
NASA confirms success of Artemis I moon mission
nasa new footage artemis i mission highlights reel orion homecoming

NASA is continuing to analyze data from last year’s Artemis I test mission that sent an uncrewed spacecraft around the moon before returning safely home.

In a meeting on Tuesday, NASA officials confirmed that so far no major problems have surfaced that would prompt it to reschedule Artemis II, the mission set for late 2024 that will follow the same route as the first flight but this time with astronauts on board.

Read more
Roman Space Telescope will survey the sky 1,000 times faster than Hubble
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

Since its launch in 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope has been delighting space fans with its stunning views of space objects near and far. But NASA has another space telescope in the works that will be able to help answer even more of the big questions in astronomy. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch in 2027 and colloquially known as Roman, will look at vast areas of space to help cosmologists understand the universe on a large scale.

In astronomy research, it's important to be able to look both in very great detail and on a very wide scale. Telescopes like Hubble and James Webb have exceptional sensitivity, so they can look at extremely distant objects. Roman will be different, aiming to get a broad view of the sky. The image below illustrates the differences between the telescopes, showing what Roman and Hubble can capture in one go and comparing Hubble's detailed, but narrow view to Roman's much wider view.

Read more
Hubble sees the dramatic collision of NASA’s DART spacecraft and an asteroid
These three panels capture the breakup of the asteroid Dimorphos when it was deliberately hit by NASA's 1,200-pound Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission spacecraft on September 26, 2022. Hubble Space Telescope had a ringside view of the space demolition derby.

Last year NASA tested out a new method for defending the planet from incoming objects by crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid. Recently, further analysis of data from the impact has shown more about what occurred during and after the impact, and how effective it was at changing the orbit of the asteroid.

The Hubble Space Telescope captured a series of images showing the aftermath of the impact, which have been put together into a video showing the bright flash of the impact and the emerging plume of material sent up from the asteroid:

Read more