Jupiter and Venus, the two brightest planets as seen from Earth, put on a good show for sky-watchers in May.
Venus, the brighter planet, shines above the western evening horizon after sunset and remains visible until 10:30 p.m. local daylight time.
The Pleiades open star cluster [M45] appears to the lower right of Venus.
Venus’ orbit takes it from Taurus into Gemini on May 19, where it will be west [right] and below giant Jupiter. A very thin crescent moon may be seen between the two bright planets that night.
The gap between Venus and Jupiter will close all month.
On May 31 the two planets will be just 8 degrees apart.
In June these two planets will be even closer and form a beautiful conjunction of bright planets.
Jupiter will be visible until 1 a.m. in early May and will set around midnight on May 31.
Jupiter lies near the top of the Gemini twins very near Gemini’s two brightest stars, Castor and Pollux.
Saturn becomes a little easier to spot this month in the eastern pre-dawn sky than it was in April.
On May 19 look for the waning crescent moon an hour before sunrise in the eastern sky. Saturn will be directly to the right of the moon, just above the horizon. Then look below and left of the moon where you will find Mars just lifting up above the horizon.
The 2026 Eta Aquariid meteor shower peaks around May 6.
Halley’s Comet is responsible for the dusty debris that we encounter each year that forms the meteors we see.
The moon will interfere with our seeing the 50 or so we usually see each hour from this shower; 10 to 15 is more likely this time. But look anyway one hour before dawn in the east-southeastern sky.
The May full moon is on May 1.