NIGHT SKY THIS WEEK 6 MAY TO 12 MAY 2019.

Night Sky This Week 6 May to 12 May 2019.

Winter is now making itself felt here in the Southern Hemisphere with cooler evenings and some clearer skies. In the last week I managed two nights observing, reports to follow later.
Here in Durban we usually have clear Winter nights although climate change has brought more clouds in the last two Winter seasons. Let's hope for better skies this Winter.
So let's take a look at what we can expect from the night skies in the coming week.

The images are taken from SkSafari 6 Pro and Carted Du Ceil, links to both webpages are under the "Useful Links" tab in the right column of this blog.

MOON AND PLANETS.

The Moon will slowly start creeping back into our night skies this week and will be at first quarter on Sunday the 12th when it will set by midnight.
Down south we have plenty of planets to take a look at.
Mars is the first early evening planet that can found in the constellation Taurus in your North Western skies just after dusk were it will be visible for a short period before it sinks below the horizon.
Jupiter starts to rise shortly after 7PM with Saturn following along after 9PM.
Looking at our early morning planets, Neptune rises a little after 2AM and is only visible in the scope.
Then we see Venus, Uranus(Telescope only) and Mercury all showing up just before dawn.

THE ETA AQUARIDS METEOR SHOWER.

This meteor shower is associated with the periodic comet 1P/Halley. We see these in the first week of may.
The meteor shower can peek at a rate of 1 per minute, but this will be a under dark clear skies, the shower radiant appears in the constellation of Aquarius hence the name.
They are best seen in the early hours just before dawn, look for the constellation Aquarius in your North Eastern skies.

Image from SkySafari 6 Pro

DEEP SKY OBSERVING(DSO).

This week I have picked out two easy targets. Both sit close to the stars Theta Scorpii and Eta Scorpii make for a easy star hop from there.
We will take a look at a open cluster(OC) and a globular cluster(GC).

NGC 6322, Open Cluster in Scorpius, Magnitude +6.00.

A easy star hop from Eta Scorpii, this cluster lies at a distance of 3249 light years from Earth. The cluster has a few 9th magnitude stars that stand out well with a sprinkling more in the 10-14th magnitude.
While the cluster itself is not very remarkable it is framed by a triangle of 7th magnitude stars in HD 156189(7.6), HD 156292(7.5) and HD 156234(7.7) and that gives it a pleasing visual aspect, especially at lower magnifications.

NGC 6388, Globular Cluster in Scorpius, Magnitude +6.71.

Another easy star hop from the star Theta Scorpii, this GC is at a distance of 32,600 light years from the Earth and 10,400 from the galactic center.
NGC 6388 was first discovered by James Dunlop on the 13th May 1826 using a 9 inch reflector telescope.
This is  a nice bright and compact globular cluster that holds up well to magnification.

Image from Cartes Du Ceil

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION(ISS).

This week we see three passes late in the week, all early evenings. The table below is from the "Spot the station" website, a link to the website is under the "Useful links" tab in the right hand column of this blog.
So get out there and catch the station is it passes high overhead.

Image courtesy of NASA.

Date	Visible	Max Height	Appears	Disappears	Share Event
Fri May 10, 6:13 PM	2 min	15°	10° above S	15° above SSE
Sat May 11, 6:58 PM	2 min	29°	10° above SW	29° above SW
Sun May 12, 6:07 PM	5 min	39°	10° above SSW	23° above E

Enjoy the week ahead and get out under the stars and look up!