Sunday May 10th the 17-day old waning gibbous Moon crosses the plane of the ecliptic moving south. This is known as the descending node, one of two intersections the Moon’s orbital path (dark green line) has with the ecliptic.
On the date of the descending node the waning gibbous Moon will be above the southern horizon at sunrise and will be near the western edge of the Milky Way. However the Moon’s reflected sunlight dims out the glow of the Milky Way. To the east are 4 of the visible planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars. Dwarf Planet Ceres, and Neptune are also part of the line-up along the ecliptic, but both have apparent magnitudes too dim to be naked-eye visible.
Click here to go to the Qué tal in the Current Skies web site for monthly observing information, or here to return to bobs-spaces.
Also Follow me and other great resources at Feedspot.
