{"id":3033,"date":"2024-05-03T03:01:12","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T03:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/?p=3033"},"modified":"2024-05-03T03:01:12","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T03:01:12","slug":"griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-may-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/2024\/05\/03\/griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-may-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Observatory Sky Report through May, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/May_2024_Sky_Report.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between May 1 and May 31, 2024. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California.<\/p>\n

Mercury<\/strong> rises in the east at 5:07 a.m., PDT, on the 1st<\/sup>, and the sun rises at 6:03 a.m., PDT, 56 minutes later. Mercury is 26-percent illuminated and 9.6 arcseconds wide. On the 31st<\/sup>, Mercury rises in the east-northeast at 4:54 a.m., PDT, and the sun rises at 5:43 a.m., PDT, 49 minutes later. Mercury is 80-percent illuminated and 5.7 arcseconds wide. Do not observe any planet when it comes close to the sun, for the danger to the eyes is great.<\/p>\n

Venus<\/strong> is close to the sun all month long and is unobservable. Do not observe any planet when it comes close to the sun, for the danger to the eyes is great.<\/p>\n

Mars<\/strong> moves from Pisces the Fishes into Cetus the Sea Monster on the 9th<\/sup> and then moves back into Pisces on the 13th<\/sup>. On the 1st<\/sup>, Mars rises in the east at 4:18 a.m., PDT. The planet is 94-percent illuminated and 4.7 arcseconds wide. On the 31st<\/sup>, Mars rises in the east at 3:20 a.m., PDT, and is 92-percent illuminated and 5.0 arcseconds wide.<\/p>\n

Jupiter<\/strong> is in Taurus the Bull.\u00a0 On the 1st<\/sup>, Jupiter sets in the west at 8:34 p.m., PDT, and the sun sets at 7:38 p.m., PDT, 56 minutes earlier. On the 8th<\/sup>, the sun sets at 7:43 p.m., PDT, and Jupiter sets in the west-northwest at 8:15 p.m., PDT, 32 minutes later. Jupiter will be too close to the sun until the 31st<\/sup>, when it rises in the east-northeast at 5:14 a.m., PDT, 29 minutes before the sun rises. Jupiter is 100-percent illuminated and 33 arcseconds wide. A telescope capable of magnification 50x will show the Red Spot, and the four bright Galilean moons also can be seen moving back and forth, across and behind Jupiter.<\/p>\n

Saturn<\/strong> is in Aquarius the Water Bearer. On the 1st<\/sup>, Saturn rises in the east at 3:44 a.m., PDT, and on the 31st<\/sup>, the planet rises at 1:52 a.m., PDT. Saturn is 16 arcseconds wide. The rings and Saturn\u2019s largest moon, Titan, may be seen with a telescope capable of magnification 50x.<\/p>\n

Uranus<\/strong> is in Aries the Ram. On the 1st<\/sup>, Uranus rises in the east-northeast at 6:40 a.m., PDT, only 37 minutes after the sun. On the 31st<\/sup>, Uranus rises at 4:48 a.m., PDT, 55 minutes before the sun rises. On the 15th<\/sup>, Uranus is at Right Ascension 3h<\/sup> 23m<\/sup> 30s<\/sup>, declination +18\u00b0 19\u02b9 00\u02ba. Uranus is 3.4 arcseconds wide, and a magnification of 200x is needed to see its disk.<\/p>\n

Neptune<\/strong> is in the constellation Pisces the Fishes. On the 1st<\/sup>, Neptune rises in the east at 4:14 a.m., PDT. On the 31st<\/sup>, Neptune rises at 2:17 a.m., PDT. On the 15th<\/sup>, Neptune is at Right Ascension 23h<\/sup> 59m<\/sup> 27s<\/sup>, declination -1\u00b0 24\u02b9 44\u02ba. Neptune\u2019s disk is 2.3 arcseconds wide, and a magnification of 200x is needed to see its disk.<\/p>\n

The last quarter moon occurs on the 1st<\/sup>, new moon on the 7th<\/sup>, first quarter on the 15th<\/sup>, full moon on the 23rd<\/sup>, and last quarter again on the 30th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

SPECIAL EVENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The eta Aquariid meteor shower<\/strong> will occur from the night of May 16 through May 27. The meteors come from comet Halley. They are named for the star in Aquarius the Water Bearer, from which they appear to originate. The shower is best seen from the southern hemisphere. From the northern hemisphere, it usually produces medium rates of 10 to 20 meteors per hour just before dawn. The meteors are swift with a high percentage of persistent trains but few fireballs. The peak occurs from the evening of the 4th<\/sup> to the morning of the 5th<\/sup>. On that night, the moon is a crescent, 14-percent illuminated, and after midnight it will not interfere.<\/p>\n

Follow All Space Considered and Griffith Observatory on Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, and Twitter<\/a> for updates on astronomy and space-related events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/May_2024_Sky_Report.mp3 This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between May 1 and May 31, 2024. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California. Mercury rises in the east … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-skyreport"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3035,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3033\/revisions\/3035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}