The Night Sky This Month – May 2025
(Looking for last month’s ‘Night Sky’? Find it at this link…)
May brings all five bright planets to the sky, and even Neptune makes an appearance in the morning before sunrise. The reliable Eta Aquarid meteor shower gets underway for much of the month and peaks during the first week of May. And the Milky Way rises before dawn at the end of ever shorter nights for northern stargazers, while longer and cooler nights south of the equator enable longer contemplation of the dazzling deep southern skies. Here’s what to see in the night sky this month…
1 May 2025. Look east-southeast before sunrise to spot Venus and Saturn within 4o of each other. At magnitude -4.5, Venus easily shines through the morning twilight. In a telescope it appears as a thick crescent about 29% illuminated. Saturn shines at magnitude +1.2 and presents an intriguing sight in a telescope because its rings are still nearly edge-on to our point of view and appear as a pair of thin lines protruding from the planet’s limb. Saturn moves from Aquarius into Pisces as the month begins and it slowly arcs away from the Sun in the coming months. Look also about 15o eastward this morning to spot tiny Mercury just over the horizon. It lingers in the morning sky for the first two weeks of the month. Southern hemisphere observers get a better view of this inner planet as it appears further above the horizon.
2 May. A fattening crescent Moon lies within 2o of Pollux in Gemini in the evening sky. Mars lies further east in the constellation Cancer not far from the Beehive star cluster (Messier 44). To the west, in the horns of Taurus, sits Jupiter. And if you have a telescope, have a look for Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN) about 2o east of the Pleiades low in the northwest, although the comet has faded to 9th magnitude and may be too faint to pull out of the evening twilight.
Mars and Jupiter in the western evening sky on May 2, 2025. The fading Comet C/2025 F2 (SWAN) lies near the Pleiades on this night.
4 May. First Quarter Moon, 13:52 UT
4-5 May. Look for Mars less than half a degree north of the Beehive star cluster in Cancer. Planet and cluster present a lovely sight in a small telescope and binoculars!
5-6 May. The usually reliable Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks. The shower runs from April 21 through May 20 each year, with many meteors still visible for several days on either side of the peak. The Eta Aquarids occur as Earth passes through a stream of icy and dusty debris from Comet 1/P Halley, more commonly called Halley’s Comet. We pass through a second stream of the comet in late October during the Orionids meteor shower. Look for the meteors anywhere in the sky, preferably after midnight. They trace their paths back to a point near the star Eta Aquarii which rises in the eastern/southeastern sky before dawn. This is perhaps the best meteor shower of the year for southern hemisphere stargazers, but northern observers may see a few of these meteors too. NOTE: If you’re clouded out, you can always watch some of the shower on the excellent live feed from the Subaru Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
10 May. Spica, Virgo’s brightest star, lies about 0.4o north of the nearly-full Moon after sunset.
12 May. Full Moon, 16:56 UT (the ‘Full Flower’ Moon). This full Moon occurs near lunar apogee and appears about 7% smaller than average, and 14% smaller than a so-called ‘super moon’ when the Moon is near perigee.
17 May. Uranus lies in conjunction with the Sun. It will slowly emerge in the constellation Taurus in the morning sky by next month.
20 May. Last Quarter Moon, 11:58 UT
22 May. Again, in the morning sky before sunrise, look east to see a waning crescent Moon with Saturn rising behind it by nearly 4o. Venus also shines brilliantly to the east. If you have a telescope handy, look also for 8th-magnitude Neptune about 2o northeast of Saturn.
23 May. Now a little thinner and more photogenic, the Moon forms an curving line with Saturn and Venus in the eastern sky at dawn.
27 May. New Moon, 3:02 UT
31 May. Look again in the evening sky for Mars and a thin crescent Moon in close proximity. Both lie near the border between the constellations Cancer and Leo.