Bakersfield Night Sky — May 17, 2025
The William M Thomas Planetarium is closed for the summer break at Bakersfield College. Yesterday, we celebrated the largest graduating class at Commencement. While many other colleges across the country, including many community colleges in California, have seen enrollment drops, Bakersfield College continues to improve the economic prospects and quality of life of an increasing number of students and their families in Kern County.
The morning and evening skies have a sort of symmetry with two very bright planets (Jupiter in the evening and Venus in the morning) and two dimmer planets (Mars in the evening and Saturn in the morning). In fact, with respect to the sun, the two sets of planets are almost mirror images of each other. From left to right, they are Mars, Jupiter, sun, Venus, and Saturn. Mercury is also in the morning sky but it is lost in the glare of the sun and continues getting closer to the sun as its orbit takes it behind the sun at the end of the month.
In the evening sky Jupiter will be low in the west after sunset, just off the tip of the left horn of Taurus. It will probably be lost in the haze layer after 9:30 p.m. Jupiter continues to drop down closer to the sun as Earth changes our viewpoint in our faster inner orbit. Jupiter will go behind the sun in late June. Mars has moved past the center of dim Cancer. At sunset, Mars will be high in the southwest and it will set a bit after 1 a.m.. By the end of the month, it will be within the boundaries of Leo as it heads for a close conjunction in mid-June with Regulus, the bright star at the bottom of the Sickle part of Leo.
At about 3:45 a.m. Saturn will become visible rising in the east below the dim stars of Pisces. You’ll see the brighter “Great Square” of Pegasus above it. Venus follows close behind in the middle of Pisces, becoming first visible at about 4:10 a.m. Because of the mountains to the east of us and the usual brown haze layer we have in the south end of the Central Valley, I use an altitude limit of 5 degrees as to when something becomes visible to us on rising or disappears on setting. That’s why the times I give in these columns may be different than what your own sky app tells you. The sky apps use a perfectly flat and clear horizon for their rise/set times.
The moon is in a waning gibbous phase tonight, becoming visible at about 1:15 a.m. on the right (west) edge of Capricornus. It will be at third (last) quarter phase on May 20 among the stars of Aquarius. On the morning of May 22, the waning crescent moon will be next to Saturn and an even thinner crescent moon will be near Venus about half a fist width at arm’s length to the right of Venus. The new moon will be on May 26. The following evening (on May 27), you might be able to spot a very thin waxing crescent moon low in the west to the lower left of Jupiter but both Jupiter and the moon may be lost in the twilight glow and haze to see it after sunset. On the last day of May a much thicker crescent moon will be next to Mars. They’ll be close enough to fit within the same field of view of your binoculars.
The main astronomy research news is the American science community trying to figure out what science research will remain if Congress approves the huge cuts in the science funding proposed by the administration. Recall from my column a month ago that NASA’s entire budget (space science plus human space flight) is less than half a penny for every federal dollar. Over half of the cut to NASA’s budget will be in the space science directorate that has given us things like Viking, Voyager, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, Perseverance, Juno at Jupiter, New Horizons flying by Pluto, and the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes. One thing’s for sure is that we will be seeing a lot less (if any) of those scenes of folks in mission control jumping for joy as U.S. scientists and engineers achieved yet another previously impossible technological feat. We’ll see more of those scenes from the European Space Agency and Japan’s JAXA as they snatch up our top scientists and engineers. China will also pull ahead of us but they’re a bit more secretive in their space science research, so they don’t have all of the cameras in their mission control rooms. “Daring Mighty Things” will probably be happening elsewhere.
—
Director of the William M Thomas Planetarium at Bakersfield College
Author of the award-winning website www.astronomynotes.com
