{"id":476197,"date":"2026-05-09T10:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T10:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/476197\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T10:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T10:20:18","slug":"catch-stunning-views-of-venus-and-jupiter-as-they-align-with-the-crescent-moon-in-mid-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/476197\/","title":{"rendered":"Catch Stunning Views of Venus and Jupiter as They Align with the Crescent Moon in Mid-May"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Bossco CC license via Flick.<\/p>\n

Jupiter and Venus will appear in a line with the waning crescent Moon in mid-May, providing a perfect opportunity for some quality stargazing.<\/p>\n

Jupiter, which has been shining brightly for months, and has been visible with both binoculars and the naked eye, will sit in the highest position of this stellar skewer.<\/p>\n

Between May 18th and 20th when it lines up with Venus and Mercury, one will find our solar system\u2019s largest planet in the western sky near the twin stars of Pollux and Castor, also known as Gemini.<\/p>\n

Roughly one-third the way up from the western horizon to the top of the sky, the weak moon will permit dazzling views of Jupiter with a telescope, in which the planet\u2019s cloud pattern and satellites like Io and Ganymede will be visible.<\/p>\n

Lower in the western sky will be Venus, shining some 700% brighter than far away Jupiter. On May 18th, it will be positioned slightly higher and to the left of a slender crescent Moon.<\/p>\n

Space.com\u2019s Joe Rao writes<\/a> of Venus that even with the naked eye, reflections of light off the Earth\u2014known as Earthshine, \u201cwill make the view seem almost three-dimensional.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of this will be best viewed between sunset and midnight, meaning that one doesn\u2019t even have to ruin their sleep schedule to enjoy the celestial show.<\/p>\n

SHARE This Excellent Opportunity To See Our Planets\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bossco CC license via Flick. Jupiter and Venus will appear in a line with the waning crescent Moon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[18,20161,43098,19,17,11449,133,451,16906],"class_list":{"0":"post-476197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-fun","10":"tag-hobby","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-leisure","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-space","16":"tag-stargazing"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116544119357532613","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}