May 2
The Barker in the Fields
Sun Position
The Sun is in Taurus at roughly +15.3° declination. Northern Hemisphere afternoons are warm and long; southern evenings arrive earlier as the year tilts away.
Sky Highlight
The Eta Aquariid meteor shower remains active, building toward its peak. Caused by particles shed by Halley's Comet, these meteors are fast (entering at about 66 km/s) and leave persistent glowing trains. Southern Hemisphere observers have the best view, with the radiant rising well before dawn.
Deep Sky Object
M64 (NGC 4826), the Black Eye Galaxy, about 17 million light-years away, in Coma Berenices. A striking spiral with a dark dust band curving across its bright nucleus, visible in small telescopes as an elliptical smudge with a shadowed core. Well-placed for northern and equatorial observers in May evenings.
Featured Star
Auva (δ Virginis) is a red giant 202 light-years distant, spectral class M3III, and a mild variable star whose brightness shifts slightly over a long, irregular period. In the Arabic tradition, Auva was one of a group called 'the barkers', a name whose exact origin remains debated among historians of science.
Around This Date
- May 2, 1948The 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory saw first light, becoming for decades the largest effective optical telescope in the world.
- May 4, 1989NASA launched the Magellan spacecraft toward Venus, which would later map about 98 percent of the planet's surface using synthetic aperture radar.
The red giants burn slow and cool, faithful as old fires.