The May 26 total eclipse of 2021's closest supermoon can be seen from western North America and elsewhere. It has a very short totality. Don't miss it!
If you could look down on the solar system plane from above on May 21, 2021, you'd see that the sun, Earth and Jupiter form a 90 degree angle in space, with our planet Earth at the vertex of this angle.
This evening - May 19, 2021 - the moon is at or near its 1st quarter phase, shining rather close to Regulus, the constellation Leo the Lion's brightest star.
With an unobstructed horizon in the direction of sunset, there's a good chance that'll you spot Mercury with the eye alone in mid-May 2021. Look for it above bright Venus in the west, an hour or so after the sun goes down.
Use the waxing crescent moon to find 3 planets from May 12-15, 2021. You'll find Mercury, Venus and Mars in the west after sunset. Find them - look down at Earth below your feet - and you'll be seeing the whole inner solar system.
Star-hop to Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs, tonight! You can do it, if you can find the constellation Leo the Lion and the famous Big Dipper asterism.
The April 2021 full moon presents the first of a "season" of 3-straight full moon supermoons. April's supermoon is the 2nd closest full moon supermoon of the year.
Bruce McClure served as lead writer for EarthSky's popular Tonight pages from 2004 to 2021, when he opted for a much-deserved retirement. You can still find many articles at EarthSky.org that were originally written by Bruce, and which the EarthSky editors still update regularly. Bruce is a sundial aficionado, whose love for the heavens has taken him to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and sailing in the North Atlantic, where he earned his celestial navigation certificate through the School of Ocean Sailing and Navigation. He also wrote and hosted public astronomy programs and planetarium programs in and around his home in upstate New York. Bruce he loves cycles of all kinds! You can still find many articles at EarthSky with Bruce's name on them, exploring the various, intricate cycles of the sky.