| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| May 22 | Venus 2°N of Moon |
| May 23 | Mercury 1.6°N of Moon |
| May 25 | New Moon |
The interesting thing in the sky is Comet C/2015 V2 Johnson in binocular range located in the bright constellation Boötes. Currently the comet is at magnitude 6.9 less than 2° SW of Delta Boötis. A sky map of the constellation is shown below for this evening. The comet is labelled near the top.
 |
| Boötes |
C/2015 V2 Johnson is a hyperbolic comet so it does not orbit our Sun. It is probably a traveler from outside the solar system or it has been gravitationally kicked out by the interaction with another body in our solar system.
If you would like to find the comet seek out Arcturus. This is a bright (4th brightest in the night sky) red star that will be sitting just southeast over overhead. Follow the bright stars shown in the first image on this blog to the naked eye star near the comet. Stick this star in your binoculars and peak southwest keeping the bright star in your field of view. If you are lucky you will see a fuzzy patch of light. This will be the comet. For more information about Boötes please see my previous blog post linked below.
Constellation Profile - Boötes
Last night we had an astronomy open house at our home. There were 12 people in attendance and we had the opportunity to discuss the objects that are currently in the sky. Even though the Moon was just past last quarter the phases were discussed and when to view them. After the presentation and the snacks the clouds parted to have a great view of Jupiter. All four Galilean Moons were visible and the seeing was good enough to see the North and South Equatorial belts at 171x power. A link to the powerpoint presentation is given below.
Astronomy Night - May 19, 2017
Based on the success of the open house we hope to continue these evenings regularly throughout the year.
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