Starwatch: The May night sky

Venus concludes its spell as a brilliant evening star by diving into our evening twilight during May. At present it stands more than 30° high in the W at sunset and sinks to set in the NW at 01:00 BST. By the 31st, though, it is only 5° high in the NW at sunset and perhaps already lost from view as it tracks towards a rare transit across the solar disc on 6 June.Close to the star Elnath in Taurus and dimming a little from mag -4.5 to -3.9 during the month, Venus swells from 38 to 57 arcsec as the illuminated portion of its disc falls from 26% to only 1%. Its dazzling crescent should be obvious through binoculars and a few keen-sighted people might even glimpse it with the unaided eye. Catch it 5° above-right of the 3% sunlit Moon on the 22nd and to the right of...

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