It's difficult to photograph a star party in full swing because star parties happen in the dark, and flash photography isn't welcome. Occasionally, however, a photo is taken that gives a flavor for the event. Photo by Ron Pearson

May Skies 2008
by Dennis Cochran

"This month Mars creeps through Cancer the Crab while Saturn almost bumps into Regulus in Leo. Saturn is retrograding west but resumes its normal eastward motion on the 3rd, so photograph the pair on that night to get them at their closest—not that another night will make much difference. Two days later on the 5th, the Eta Aquarid meteors peak with a possible surge in the morning hours, and the new moon will not interfere. A day later, the 6th, we’ll see the sliver of a crescent moon posing with Mercury low in the west-northwest about 45 minutes after sunset, accompanied by Aldebaran, the red star in Taurus hovering off to the left, and the Pleiades hugging the horizon below and to the right. Maybe you can catch them all with a wide-angle scope or lens. Mercury is even now being visited by the Messenger spacecraft sending us back images to fill our astronomy magazines. Another photo-op occurs on the 12th when the Moon forms a triangle with Regulus and your favorite ringed planet. Mars visits the Beehive Cluster M44 in the early 20’s of this month. Finally, if you wait until 1 A.M., or midnight at month’s end, you can see Jupiter.

All of those neato galaxies mentioned last month will still be there, if you missed them. Face-on spiral M101 makes the point of a triangle above the last two stars in the Big Dipper’s handle. And remember M51 below the end of the handle? If you freefall past it into the open region around the zenith you can find the two-star constellation Canes Venatici (CV). These are two more hunting dogs like Canis Major and Minor, however they don’t belong to Orion—they are with Boötes and are nipping at the heels of Ursa Major. The brighter, or alpha star is Cor Carolis (CC), “Heart of Charles,” probably Charles II of England, the “party animal” king who came
after Cromwell. Anyway, there are galaxies galore in this part of the sky. M63, the “Sunflower Galaxy,” lies halfway between CC and M51. CC itself is a binary separated by 20 arc-seconds. M104, another galaxy, is situated on the M51 side of the line connecting the CV pair. Fainter galaxies form a sort of Great Wall north and south off the faint end of CV, with M106 among those in the north. Southeast of CV is the “corner” asterism of Coma Berenices (CB) where you can find M64, the “Black Eye Galaxy,” a bit to the right of halfway between Alpha and Beta CB. Last month we mentioned the naked-eye star cluster Melotte 111 in CB, a great binocular object in town and a sparkling naked eye sight in dark skies. These scattered stars were “Berenice’s
Hair” to the ancients.

Globular clusters M53 and NGC5053 are at the bottom of the Alpha-Beta line that makes up the side of CB’s corner, just left of Alpha. East of the CB area is Bootes (Arcturus) and farther east Hercules will be rising. M13 is on the western edge of the “Chinese-take-out-box” asterism of Hercules. South of Arcturus is Spica, the bright star in Virgo. The four-sided shape of Corvus the Crow is easy to make out below and right of Spica. Below the left corner of Corvus is the globular cluster M68, actually located in the long wandering line of stars that make up Hydra the “Water Snake,” a constellation you don’t hear much about. Hydra had a fight with Hercules and lost. Okay—see you at Chamberlin for the Open House on Saturday, May 10.

—Dennis Cochran