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18 | THE COLONY NEWS | MAY 2023 | By Mike Vergara, 951- 461-2889 May has arrived. Let's hope the gray stays away! The moon figures prominently in this month's astronomical events. Just before sunrise on May 17 the waning crescent moon will occult (i.e., pass in front of) the planet Jupiter. The moon will start to block Jupiter when it's below our horizon, but right around sunrise, shortly after 5 am, Jupiter will re-emerge from behind the moon. With the sunrise very quickly afterwards, you'll have to be quick to catch this event. Lunar occultations are only visible from a small fraction of the Earth's surface, because the moon is so much closer than any other celestial object. At the time of occultation, the moon will be 25 days past new moon and will be about 5% illuminated. Jupiter will disappear behind the illuminated edge of the moon and reappear from behind the dark edge of the moon. Then two days later, on May 19, there's a little-known event called a Black Moon. A Black Moon is the third new moon in a season that has four new moons, and that's what we have this spring. This is the exact counterpart to the original definition of a Blue Moon, except that Blue Moons are full moons. Then on the nights of May 22-24, the moon will be near the planets Mars and Venus in the western evening sky. The best time for viewing will be after 8:30 pm or so. Earth is moving away from Mars, so it is relatively dim, and we will need to wait until after sunset to see it. The three objects are close enough to all be visible with your unaided eye or a pair of binoculars. And last but not least, there are several evenings this month that will feature ISS passing overhead between 8 and 9 pm. Those are always pretty neat to catch. To find where the planets and constellations are for the month, visit http://skymaps.com/index.html. From there you can print your own map of the sky. Clear skies! May sky May sky In Memoriam CLARENCE WEIGT