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Ephemeris: 05/04/2026 – Looking out of the Milky Way

May 4, 2026 Leave a comment

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Monday, May 4th. Today the Sun will be up for 14 hours and 23 minutes, setting at 8:51, and it will rise tomorrow at 6:26. The Moon, 3 days past full, will rise at 12:25 tomorrow morning.

The May evening sky, when it finally gets dark, contains fewer stars than those of winter. And they’re much dimmer. The main reason for that is that we are looking out the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way is no nowhere to be seen, because it rings the horizon. A bit is visible in the north. The summer triangle of bright stars is not completely up in the evening, and it straddles the Milky Way. So we are looking out to the universe beyond the Milky Way, for the most part. Even amateur telescopes will reveal a great number of galaxies, because there’s a huge cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo which is right behind and below Leo the lion in the sky. However, just about 90° from the plane of the Milky Way is a star cluster that looks like strands of hair.

The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.

Addendum

May sky dome for 11 PM May 15th, showing constellations and deep sky objects. It shows how galaxies dominate the spring sky.
May sky dome for 11 PM May 15th, showing constellations and deep sky objects. It shows how galaxies dominate the spring sky. The tiny red circles are galaxies, other Milky Ways beyond our own. The other symbols are also what we call deep sky objects, that are extended objects among and beyond the solar system, such as star clusters, nebulae and galaxies. Most of the other symbols cluster around the plane of the Milky Way, that can be seen along the northern half of the horizon. The little orange circles are galactic or open star clusters which are relatively young and born out of the nebulae (red squares) in the the galactic plane. The green circles with the cross inside are globular star clusters which are very old and compact and are aranged within a large spherical volume concentrated on the center of the Milky Way. The green circles will line through it are planetary nebulae which have nothing to do with planets but are dying stars who puffed out their outer layers of gas. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
Categories: Ephemeris Program, Galaxies, Milky Way