Podcaster: Shane and Chris
Title: Actual Astronomy: The Observer’s Calendar for May 2025
Organization: Actual Astronomy
Link : https://actualastronomy.podbean.com/ ; https://www.deepskyeye.com/
Description: The Actual Astronomy Podcast presents The Observer’s Calendar for May 2025. In this episode we talk about how to see the Moon as it pairs with Saturn and Venus in the morning sky, Mars and the Beehive in the evening sk, see the brightest asteroid Vesta, Juno and a handful of deep sky objects when the Moon isn’t in the sky.
Bio: Shane and Chris are amateur astronomers who enjoy teaching astronomy classes and performing outreach where they help the eyes of the public to telescope eyepieces.
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Transcript:
Observer’s Calendar for May 2025 on Episode 480 of the Actual Astronomy podcast. I’m Chris and joining me is Shane. We are amateur astronomers who love looking up at the night sky and this podcast is for everyone who enjoys going out under the stars.
May 1 Morning
May Comet C2025 F2 SWAN? Passes Pleiades on May 1 & 2
But only 1-2 degrees up in a dark sky for us…likely visibility is going to be a challenge…much fainter than Tsuchen Atlas was back in October, that comet was Mag. 2 and could be tough to see 10-12 degree higher… but you never know.
- May 2 – Vesta at Opposition, with a peak magnitude of 5.6 and a new moon period the week before it makes it just possible to see in the constellation Libra from a dark sky.
Discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers on 29 March 1807 and is named after Vesta, the virgin goddess of home and hearth from Roman mythology. It was the forth asteroid discovered thus it’s full. Name 4 Vesta and at first classed a planet.
Second largest asteroid after Ceres but the brightest seen from Earth and it can get as bright as 5.1 mag. A collision 2 billion years ago has caused meteorites to land on earth as howardite, eucrite and diogenite.
Dawn spacecraft studied it in 2011/12 on it’s way to Ceres.
May 3rd – Mars Moon and Beehive
May 4th First Quarter Moon – Lunar X visible on Moon.
May 5th Lunar Straight Wall Visible & Maginus Ray
M83 Well placed this evening
- Messier 83 was discovered by Nicholas Louis de Lacaille at the Cape of Good Hope in 1752. It was the third galaxy discovered, after M 31 and M 32, and the first discovered beyond our Local Group. Charles Messier added M 83 to his catalogue in 1781; its spiral structure was first noted by William Lassell.
- Messier 83, also catalogued as NGC 5236, is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Hydra. It is one of the closest and brightest spiral galaxies in the sky, and sometimes called the “Southern Pinwheel”.
May 6th Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower Peak – ZHR 50 but usually 30 though in 2013 it reached over 130. From Comet Halley.
May 7 Jeweled Handle
May 9 – Metis Opposition Mag 9.6
May 10/11 Moon passes within ½ degree of Spica all night
May 12 Full Moon
May 14 Asteroid Juno at opposition but peaks only at 10th magnitude in Serpens (The Westward one)
3 Juno, so 3rd Asteroid discovered.
It was found by German astronomer Karl Harding in 1804. S-type stoney asteroid.
Named after Juno, highest Roman goddess.
Originally considered a planet was reclassified with Ceres, Pallas and Vesta in the 1850;s.
May 14/15 Endymion sunset rays visible on Moon
May 15 – Titan Shadow Transit Visible here and west.
May 20 – Last Quarter Moon – Mare Orientale feature visible
May 22
May 23 NGC 5986
- Globular Cluster NGC 5986 was discovered by James Dunlop on May 10, 1826, and became no. 552 in his catalog. In the New General Catalog, Dreyer describes this object as “remarkable, very bright, large, round, and very gradually brightening toward the middle, with stars of mag 13 to 15.”
- NGC 5986 has a total visual magnitude of 7.2, and is 9.8 arc minutes in diameter. It has moderate central star concentration. NGC 5986 has a broad core, and the stars at the periphery are well resolved.
May 27th – New Moon – Young Crescent possible.
Carbon Stars V Oph and S Sct at their best tonight.
Also, Omega Centauri well placed.
May 31 – Venus at Greatest Elongation in morning Sky 46-degrees from Sun.
Next 3 nights line up.
Concluding Message: Please subscribe and share the show with other stargazers you know and send us show ideas, observations and questions to actualastronomy@gmail.com
365 Days of Astronomy
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