May starts out with a bang and continues with two much-anticipated space exploration launches. In addition, more and more local events are being added to the United States’ International Year of Astronomy calendar, so be sure to keep checking in for activities in your city. Here’s what’s in store for you internationally:
May 2009
NASA Theme: Our Sun (this month Galileo first wrote up his observations on sunspots in 1612)
Featured object in the sky: The Sun and sunspots
May 2: Celebrate Astronomy Day, organized by the Astronomical League, an umbrella group of amateur astronomy clubs in the United States. Check out the group’s web site to see if any events are happening near you. Astronomy magazine and Celestron are sponsoring some Astronomy Day events throughout the country, as well. Visitors to the events can pick up material from Astronomy magazine and enter drawings to win a Celestron telescope and other prizes from Astronomy.
May 4: Saturn and the almost full Moon are close (6° apart) in the night sky. See their exact positions in your night sky using Astronomy.com’s interactive star chart, StarDome.
May 6: The Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks before dawn. Observers under ideal conditions could see as many as 60 meteors per hour.
May 11: Start the countdown for shuttle Atlantis and Hubble Servicing Mission 4, whose launch window opens May 11. The mission will improve Hubble's sensitivity, enhance its scientific power, and extend its operational life.
May 14: The European Space Agency’s Planck and Herschel missions are set to launch. Planck’s main goal is to study the Cosmic Microwave Background — the remnant radiation from the Big Bang. Herschel, the most powerful infrared telescope ever flown in space, will study the origin and evolution of stars and galaxies.
May 21: Early in the morning, before sunrise, you can see the crescent Moon, Venus, and Mars make a beautiful little triangle in the east-southeast.
May 31: Saturn and the Moon are close in the west in the evening sky.