18 | THE COLONY NEWS | MAY 2022 | COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD
By Mike Vergara, (951) 461-2889
Alas, there weren't enough April showers to bring May
flowers.
Unless you're talking about meteors! The Lyrids meteor
shower was late last month, and the next shower, called the
Eta Aquarids, will peak overnight Friday, May 6-7. As are all
meteor showers, the Eta Aquarids are named for where they
appear to come from in the sky. In this case, Eta Aquarii is
the brightest star in the constellation Aquarius. The tiny bits
of rock and ice which we will see as meteors are created by
debris from Comet Halley (aka Halley's Comet).
As usual, the best time for viewing this shower is after
midnight on Saturday, May 7. Look to the southeast where
Aquarius will rise around 3:30 am. If you are up that early,
you'll get the added bonus of seeing four of the five visible
planets lined up in the morning sky just below Aquarius.
The May full moon will have its own light show. When the
"Full Flower Moon" rises on Monday, May 16, it will be in the
opening moments of a total lunar eclipse. Totality will occur
from 8:30 pm until 10:00 pm PDT. During that time, the moon
will be a dark red. This is caused by the Earth's atmosphere
"bending" the sunlight so that only the red rays can reach the
moon's face. The moon will be back to its normal brilliance
shortly after midnight.
The International Space Station (ISS) will be passing over
us a lot in May. It starts in the early AM, then for a while will
have two visible passes per day and wind up in the evening. If
you're out watching the eclipse, there will be a pass starting
at 8:46 pm.
Visit http://skymaps.com/index.html to print your own map
of the sky for the month. For information about satellites, go to
https://heavens-above.com.
Clear skies!
may Sky may Sky
Elaine Archer
Leon Goldberg
Bill Jones
Mary Manor
Joyce Park
Al Roth
In Memoriam
