Constellations and Astronomical Events Visible in May 2025!

Happy May and happy end of the semester! I hope everyone got to enjoy the nice weather we had at the end of April. If you missed it because you were studying for finals, you’re in luck because it looks like the first full week of May will be just as sunny! Speaking of the Sun, we’ll be seeing it rise at 6:31 am and set at 8:26 pm at the beginning of the month. By the end of the month we’ll gain about an extra hour of sunlight with the sunrise beginning around 6:05 am and the sunset around 8:54 pm.

The full moon this month will be on May 12th and the new moon is on May 27th. Mercury won’t be very easy to see this month, but if you want to try it will be visible just above the eastern horizon before the Sun rises at the start of the month. It won’t take very long for Mercury to get too close to the Sun to be visible, so make sure you try to catch it soon! Since Mercury is getting closer to the Sun it will also reach superior solar conjunction this month on May 30th, meaning it will be on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth. Venus will be much easier to spot rising earlier than the Sun in the mornings. On May 31st Venus will also reach its greatest western elongation making that morning the best time to view it this month since it will be at its farthest apparent distance from the Sun. The diagram below shows how the positions of Earth, Venus, and Mercury must be oriented for conjunctions and elongations. You can use it to figure out how Mercury and Venus are positioned with respect to Earth!

Mars will be visible as soon as the Sun sets, appearing in the south-west sky and remaining visible for the entire month. Jupiter will also be visible right after sunset in the western sky. Jupiter is much lower in the sky than Mars, so you won’t need to look too far above the horizon to find it. At the beginning of the month Jupiter will fall below the horizon around 11:30 pm and just after sunset by the end of the month. Saturn will be rising in the east right next to Venus at the beginning of the month and will increase in visibility by the end of May as it climbs higher above the horizon.

The Eta Aquariid shower will occur this month, reaching its peak on the night of May 5th through the next morning. As shown in the diagram below, the shower radiates from the constellation of Aquarius, which will not rise until around 3:00 am the morning of May 6th. Meteors will still be visible beforehand, but the best viewing experience will be after the Aquarius rises in the predawn sky. The shower is predicted to have up to 60 meteors per hour in ideal conditions, so if you’re awake you should be able to see at least a few even with Columbus skies! The origin of this shower is actually from debris left behind by the famous Halley’s Comet which orbits the Sun over a roughly 76 year period.

As we move through the year, the bright winter constellations will be falling below the horizon unable to be seen until next winter. In light of this, I thought it would be a good time to highlight a constellation that will be easily visible this month. The constellation Leo is a spring constellation that begins to appear in the sky around March and is visible through May. Right now you should be able to see it just by looking straight up! It won’t be right at the top of the sky, but it will be somewhere around there in the south-west sky. It will be visible as soon as the Sun sets, so keep an eye out in the late evening. When I first saw this constellation I always thought it looked more like a mouse with the triangle shape on the left being the head and the hook on the right being the tail, but it’s actually the other way around! The head of the Lion is the hook shape and the rest of the constellation makes up the body and tail. The brightest star of Leo is Regulus and because it appears around the Lion’s chest, it is also called “the heart of the lion.”

Sources:

• https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/columbus?month=1
• http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-calendar-2024.html
• https://in-the-sky.org/newscal.php?month=2&year=2025&maxdiff=7#datesel
• https://stellarium-web.org/

Image Credit:

• Planet Orbits Diagram: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/greatest-elongation-definition-venus-mercury/
• Eta Aquariid Diagram: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-eta-aquarid-meteor-shower/
• Leo Constellation Image: https://stellarium-web.org/