Following sunset this month, the Big Dipper can be found very close to the zenith and is a terrific navigational tool. The two stars farthest from the handle, Dubhe and Merak, can be used to point to the North Star, Polaris, as shown on the map below. In the other direction, these “Pointer Stars” lead us south to the constellation Leo the lion. Utilizing the arc of the Dipper’s handle, we can also “arc to Arcturus,” “spike to Spica,” and “continue on to Corvus the crow.”

Looking to the west, our evening sky features the planets Mars and Venus, which look like bright stars to the unaided eye. Venus reaches its highest point during mid- to late May and glows at magnitude -4.3. Mars can be found about 17 degrees east of Venus, glowing a reddish-orange color. The crescent moon joins these planets from May 22nd to the 25th. In our morning sky, Saturn can be seen about two hours before sunrise, with Jupiter making its appearance about 30 minutes before the sun joins the sky.

The Eta Aquarid meteor shower runs annually from April 19th to May 28th and peaks this month on the evening of the 5th into the following morning. In the Northern Hemisphere this shower produces about 30 meteors per hour. The full moon blocks the dimmer meteors this year, but the brighter “shooting stars” will still be visible. For best viewing, find yourself a dark location after midnight.

Fifty years ago on May 25th, Skylab 2 was launched. It was the first crewed mission to American’s earliest space station, Skylab, which was launched earlier in the month on May 14th. This crew performed the first repair spacewalk to fix a broken solar array, allowing Skylab to receive enough power to continue operating. Science Pilot Joseph P. Kerwin became the first medical doctor in space and studied the effects spaceflight has on the human body. This crew was also the first to safely return to Earth after inhabiting a space station and set a new record for the longest duration of human spaceflight (28 days).

The Westfield High School Space and Astronomy Club recently held an observing event, which included both the Westfield Intermediate School (5th and 6th grade) and Middle School (7th and 8th grade). The first quarter moon was the highlight of the evening. One telescope featured the moon all night, with some students viewing it through a telescope for the very first time. The club’s homemade 10-inch “Gravel” Dobsonian telescope featured multiple deep sky objects. The Orion Nebula was by far the favorite target through this telescope.

My family recently traveled down to Washington, D.C. for school vacation week and we had an opportunity to stargaze with the National Capital Astronomers. Clouds blanketed the sky at sunset, but as if a switch had been flipped, the heavens opened up following twilight. My fellow high school astronomy club member and good friend Lani Ching joined me, and we had the pleasure of touring the universe through club members’ telescopes. We greatly enjoyed viewing many deep sky objects through their eVscopes. Two observations worth mentioning are the Orion Nebula and Whirlpool Galaxy. With the eVscope’s technology, the details of these objects were comparable to digital images.

Lani and I, along with our families, attended two planetarium shows at the National Air and Space Museum, and one at the Rock Creek National Park.