4 a.m. local daylight time on the 1st for northern temperate latitudes. You’ll find Saturn 7° northeast of a 24-day-old waning crescent Moon on the morning of May 3.
Saturn lies within a degree of Phi (ϕ) Aquarii, a 4th-magnitude star best seen in binoculars as the sky starts brightening soon after they rise. Regular observers will recognize this star: It was a guide to finding Neptune a few years ago.
The planet climbs higher before dawn as the month progresses. On May 1 it stands 11° high an hour before sunrise; this increases to a respectable 26° by the 31st. The waning crescent Moon has returned to the vicinity on May 31, now 23 days old and less than 2° from Saturn. On this day, the Moon occults Saturn for observers in southern South America and parts of Africa.
The ringed world is dramatic through a telescope. Its disk spans 16" and the rings just less than 40". This is the last year before the ring-plane crossing, so the rings appear beautifully slender, currently tilted 3° to our line of sight.
Neptune is difficult to spot at magnitude 7.8, low in the eastern sky as twilight begins. It lies in Pisces about 5° southeast of Lambda (λ) Piscium. On May 1, Neptune and Mars are only 1.7° apart. Mars is easy to spot at magnitude 1.2.
Keen observers might find the ice giant about 5° northeast of the waning crescent Moon on May 4. By the end of the month, the planet is 17° high about 90 minutes before sunrise, placing it in easier range for telescopes and binoculars.
Returning to Mars, its tiny 5"-wide disk reveals very little and the planet remains low in the eastern sky. It crosses southern Pisces, spends a few days in the second week of May cutting the corner of Cetus the Whale, then returns to Pisces for the remainder of the month. The Red Planet ends the month at magnitude 1.1.
Mercury returns to the