This month’s planets

Catch Mars in the evening sky alongside Mercury and Venus, which put on a dazzling display

Mars will be visible in the evening sky this month as an orange-hued star, shining halfway up from the western horizon as the sky begins to darken. With a magnitude of +1.7 it will be bright enough to be seen with just the naked eye, but not particularly striking, nowhere near bright enough to catch the eye if you’re not looking for it and a lot fainter than much brighter Venus, which will be visible over to its lower right in the northwest.

At the start of our observing period Mars will lie below the ‘twin stars’ Castor and Pollux in Gemini, and will be setting around three hours after the Sun. By the middle of June, when Mars will have moved closer to the Sun and will be setting an hour earlier, it will have company in the sky. On the evening of 12 June a beautiful crescent Moon will shine to Mars’ lower right, halfway between it and Venus. The following evening the Moon will have moved further eastwards along its track and will be just two degrees away from Mars. After sunset on 14 June the Moon will be shining to the upper left of Mars, just under 12 degrees away. On each of these nights the part of the Moon’s face not lit by direct sunlight should be glowing with the subtle lavender-pink light of Earthshine, making this conjunction between the Moon and the Red Planet a tempting target for astrophotographers.

At the end of our observing period Mars will have crossed the border between Gemini and

Cancer, and will be close to the much-loved star cluster Messier 44, the Beehive Cluster. But by then it will be low in the twilight sky, and you’ll need a flat horizon with no trees or buildings blocking your view if you want to see that celestial close encounter.

Out at Mars itself, this will be a busy and exciting time. Not only will NASA’s Perseverance rover be well into its mission to look for signs of ancient Martian life at its landing site in Jezero crater, but there will hopefully be another rover arriving on the Red Planet to begin studying it. May is when the Chinese rover Tianwen-1 is expected to land on Mars, although that might be delayed until June.

Constellation: Aquarius Magnitude: -2.3 AM/PM: AM Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System, is a morning object during the coming month. Shining at magnitude -2.3, it will be an easy naked-eye object, even with the morning’s creeping light. You’ll find it shining low in the southeast before sunrise, 17 degrees to the lower left of fainter Saturn, which it will remain close to throughout the summer. Jupiter’s visibility will steadily improve as each morning passes, and by the middle of June it will be rising three hours before the Sun, although it will remain low in the sky until dawn washes it from view.

Constellation: Capricornus Magnitude: +0.6 AM/PM: AM The famous Ringed Planet will be visible as a yellow-white star before sunrise, shining low in the southeast and to the right of much brighter Jupiter. At the start of our observing period Saturn will be rising two hours before the Sun, and by the middle of June will be rising almost four hours before it, making this a good observing period for Saturn-watchers.

Constellation: Taurus Magnitude: -3.9 AM/PM: PM Venus will be easily visible to the naked eye as a bright, silvery star low in the northwest soon after sunset, setting more than an hour after the Sun. In late May Venus will be joined by Mercury, and the two will appear close together in the twilight for a few days, at their closest on 28 May, when they will lie just a Moon’s width apart.

Constellation: Aries Magnitude: +5.9 AM/PM: AM Uranus will be hard to see. Although its magnitude of +5.9 means it qualifies as a naked-eye object, that only really relates to a dark sky. This month Uranus will be fighting against the brightening morning light, so you’ll probably need binoculars to pick it out from the equally faint and unimpressive background stars of Capricornus.

Constellation: Taurus Magnitude: +0.9 AM/PM: PM Mercury will be an evening object during our observing period, becoming visible as a copper-hued ‘star’ low in the northwest as the sky begins to darken after sunset. On 20 May it will be shining to the upper left of much brighter and more obvious Venus, and will be setting around two hours after sunset, giving you a good stretch of time to look for it.