In May you need to be up quite late to see the stars in a dark sky! So our map this month is for 11 pm BST.
Leo, which first made its appearance in the winter, is still with us, but starting to dive down towards the western horizon. Virgo, with its bright star Spica, is now occupying centre stage. If you have dark skies and a telescope this is a good time of year to explore some of the hundreds of galaxies visible in Virgo. This is the location of a major cluster of galaxies some 50 million light years away. This page in our Young Stargazers area shows you how to find the brightest, which are visible with binoculars.
Below Virgo is Corvus, the Crow, which is one of those constellations which stands out because of its pattern rather than because it has bright stars. Its quadrilateral of stars are between second and third magnitude, but they are easy to spot even in quite poor skies.
Above Virgo is a constellation at the other end of the scale, Coma Berenices. Its stars are no brighter than fourth magnitude, but it still commands interest because it contains a noticeable wide cluster of stars, known as the Coma Star Cluster. In a country sky this is very noticeable as a sprinkling of stars of fifth magnitude or fainter, though in suburban conditions you’ll need binoculars to pick it out. It is a genuine star cluster, with most of the stars in the same region of space about 270 light years away.
To the east (left) of Coma is one of the brightest stars in the sky, Arcturus. This has a noticeable golden tinge, as it’s a red giant star. It’s a major feature of spring and summer skies, and is well away from the ecliptic, which runs through Leo, Virgo and Libra, so it can’t be confused with a planet. It’s in the otherwise rather boring constellation of Boötes, the Herdsman. The two dots over the second o are to emphasise that it is pronounced separately, as bo-oh-teez , rather than being a German umlaut. And it’s definitely not Boots or Bootees!
Libra, the Scales, is a fairly unremarkable group of stars well to the south of Arcturus. Its main claim to fame is that it’s the only constellation in the zodiac which doesn’t represent an animal. There are some constellations that are jam-packed with interesting things to see, but Libra and Boötes are not among them. However, one constellation that does punch above its weight is Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, to the east of Boötes. This semicircle of stars is attractive, and also contains some interesting variable stars as well as faint galaxies.
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