What’s Up in the Night Sky – May 2026
from In-The-Sky.org
Moon Phases
Full – May 1 – Full Flower Moon
Last Quarter – May 9
New Moon – May 16
First Quarter – May 23
Full – May 31 – Blue Moon
Close Encounters
May 3 – Close approach of the Moon and Antares. The Moon occults Antares for portions of the southern hemisphere.
May 6 – The Eta Aquariid meteor shower reaches its peak rate of meteors. See details below.
May 13 – Conjunction of Saturn and the Moon with the Moon passing over 5.5° north of Saturn. This is an early morning event and the pair will only be 11° above the horizon as sunrise begins.
May 14 – Conjunction of Mars and the Moon with the Moon passing 5° north of Mars. Another early morning event taking place with the pair only 4° above the horizon as sunrise begins.
May 18 – Mark your calendar for this one! The 3-day old Moon passes 3° north of Venus in a fairly close conjunction in the evening sky. Watch Venus pop into view near the thin crescent Moon as the sky darkens.
May 20 – Conjunction of Jupiter and the crescent Moon. The Moon passes 3° north of Jupiter.
May 21 – The thick crescent Moon passes within 1 degree of M44 (The Beehive Cluster) in Cancer.
May 23 – Close approach of the Moon and Regulus. An occultation takes place for portions of the south Pacific.
May 28 – The globular cluster M4 in Scorpius is well placed for viewing. It passes the zenith near midnight.
May 31 – Early AM the second full Moon (Blue Moon) passes near Antares in Scorpius.
Major Meteor Showers – from https://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/
The eta Aquariids meteor shower is active from April 19 through May 28 with a peak on May 8. The Moon will be waning gibbous (84% illuminated) and will severely affect the 10-30 ZHR.
Planet Watch for May 15, 2026
Mercury Is about to pass behind the Sun and is not visible. It will next be an evening object, reaching its highest altitude on June 10.
Venus becomes visible 22° above the western horizon in the evening as the Sun sets and will remain visible until a little after 10pm with a low western horizon.
Mars rises in the eastern morning sky as the sky begins to brighten and only 4° above the horizon at dawn. Mars’ next opposition is February 19, 2027.
Jupiter is halfway up the western sky at sunset and remains visible until around midnight. At magnitude -2 it continues to outshine nearby Castor and Pollux in Gemini.
Saturn begins its newest apparition. It shines at magnitude 0.7 in the morning sky, reaching an altitude of only 12° before dawn washes it out.
Uranus is at solar conjunction on May 22, ending this current apparition and beginning the new one. Uranus will next be visible in the early morning sky in June.
Neptune shines at a feeble magnitude 7.9 and is lost in the brightening morning sky. It is only 9° above the horizon at dawn.