{"id":57922,"date":"2024-05-03T04:53:20","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T04:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/7b07ea52-6b8c-4fb0-98d0-dce6e1ebe481"},"modified":"2024-05-03T05:09:47","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T05:09:47","slug":"comet-pons-brooks-and-a-dying-star-find-out-whats-visible-in-the-southern-hemisphere-night-sky-this-month","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/comet-pons-brooks-and-a-dying-star-find-out-whats-visible-in-the-southern-hemisphere-night-sky-this-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Comet Pons-Brooks and a dying star. Find out what’s visible in the Southern Hemisphere night sky this month"},"content":{"rendered":"

Find out what’s in the night sky tonight from your Southern Hemisphere location. <\/p>

By Glenn Dawes\n <\/p>

Published: Friday, 03 May 2024 at 04:53 AM<\/p>

\n\n

If you’re based in the Southern Hemisphere and want to know what you can see in the night sky tonight, this page is for you.<\/p>

Our monthly-updated night-sky guide will show you what you can see in the Southern Hemisphere over the coming weeks.<\/p>

We’ll include monthly highlights, stars, constellations, planets and deep-sky objects.<\/p>

For more advice, read our guides to Southern Hemipshere stargazing<\/a> and the best night-sky targets to see in Australia<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>

Mars at Opposition by Matt Watson, Sydney, Australia. Equipment: Takahashi Mewlon 250, Losmandy G11, ZWO ASI174MM mono, Baader RGB filters, A Televue 3x Barlow<\/figcaption><\/figure>
**Southern Hemisphere night sky tonight: highlights, April 2024<\/strong><\/h2>**Periodic Comet 12P\/Pons\u2013Brooks<\/a> orbits the Sun every 71 years, having a favourable return in 2024.<\/p>
After reaching perihelion on 21 April, it opens May around mag. +4.5, close to the western horizon as twilight ends.<\/p>
The comet can be found below Rigel<\/a> (Beta Orionis) early in the month, rising slowly and passing within 5\u00b0 of the star on 17\u201323 May.<\/p>
If a tail is visible, it should point towards Rigel in early May. <\/p>
The month closes with Pons\u2013Brooks in Lepus, possibly faded to mag. +6.0.<\/p>
$\"Comet$
Comet 12P\/Pons-Brooks delighted Northern Hemisphere observers in the early part of 2024. Now it’s the Southern Hemisphere’s turn. Credit: Tim Jackson<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Stars and constellations<\/strong><\/h2>
The Milky Way\u2019s most southerly region is brilliantly displayed in May.<\/p>
The closest obvious asterism to the South Celestial Pole is the trapezium in Musca, beneath (south of) the Southern Cross (Crux).<\/p>
Flanking it are two rivals to this claim: Triangulum Australe to the left (east) and the Diamond Cross (part of Carina) to the right (west).<\/p>
Within these are the closest second-magnitude stars to the pole: Atria (Alpha Triangulum Australe) and Miaplacidus (Beta Carinae).<\/p>
Planets<\/strong><\/h2>
Evenings contain no planets in May in the Southern Hemisphere skies.<\/p>
Saturn rises around 01:30 mid-month, followed by Neptune an hour later, Mars at 03:30 and finally Mercury around 05:00.<\/p>
The eastern pre-dawn sky finds Saturn, Mars and Mercury in a line, with the waning crescent Moon in conjunction with each on 4, 5 and 6 May respectively.<\/p>
The month commences with Mars and Neptune only 1\u00b0 apart then swiftly separating.<\/p>
Early May sees the best morning return for Mercury this year, rising one hour before dawn.<\/p>
Deep-sky objects<\/strong><\/h2>
This month, a trip to Corvus the Crow, whose most obvious feature is four main stars in a trapezium shape.<\/p>
The northeast corner is mag. +3.0 Delta (\u03b4) Corvi, a nice naked-eye double with mag. +4.3 Eta (\u03b7) Corvi 0.6\u00b0 away.<\/p>
Binoculars show them to be blue and yellowish-white respectively.<\/p>
Move 4\u00b0 northeast to discover the double star Struve 1669 (RA 12h 41.3m, dec. \u201313\u00b0 01\u2019). It\u2019s ideal for small telescopes, presenting two yellow components with matching brightness (mag. +5.9), separated by a snug 5.5 arcseconds.<\/p>
Corvus is home to a little-known but bright and large planetary nebula<\/a>, NGC 4361 (RA 12h 24.5m, dec. \u201318\u00b0 47\u2019).<\/p>
The nebula is a circular disc (around 100 arcseconds across) with a central 13th-magnitude star. Its total magnitude is +10.5, being brightest in the centre and gradually fading towards the edge.<\/p>
$\"Spitzer$
Spitzer Space Telescope image of NGC 4361. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Southern Hemisphere Star Charts<\/strong><\/h2>
Access this month’s and all previous star charts for the Southern Hemisphere by clicking on the links below.<\/p>
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart May 2024 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart April 2024 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart March 2024 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart February 2024 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart January 2024 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart December 2023 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart November 2023 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart October 2023 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n***
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Find out what’s in the night sky tonight from your Southern Hemisphere location. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":57923,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/comet-pons-brooks-and-a-dying-star-find-out-whats-visible-in-the-southern-hemisphere-night-sky-this-month.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/comet-pons-brooks-and-a-dying-star-find-out-whats-visible-in-the-southern-hemisphere-night-sky-this-month-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/comet-pons-brooks-and-a-dying-star-find-out-whats-visible-in-the-southern-hemisphere-night-sky-this-month-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/comet-pons-brooks-and-a-dying-star-find-out-whats-visible-in-the-southern-hemisphere-night-sky-this-month-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/comet-pons-brooks-and-a-dying-star-find-out-whats-visible-in-the-southern-hemisphere-night-sky-this-month-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/comet-pons-brooks-and-a-dying-star-find-out-whats-visible-in-the-southern-hemisphere-night-sky-this-month.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/05\/comet-pons-brooks-and-a-dying-star-find-out-whats-visible-in-the-southern-hemisphere-night-sky-this-month.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Find out what's in the night sky tonight from your Southern Hemisphere location.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/57922"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Mars at Opposition by Matt Watson, Sydney, Australia. Equipment: Takahashi Mewlon 250, Losmandy G11, ZWO ASI174MM mono, Baader RGB filters, A Televue 3x Barlow<\/figcaption><\/figure>
**Southern Hemisphere night sky tonight: highlights, April 2024<\/strong><\/h2>**Periodic Comet 12P\/Pons\u2013Brooks<\/a> orbits the Sun every 71 years, having a favourable return in 2024.<\/p>
After reaching perihelion on 21 April, it opens May around mag. +4.5, close to the western horizon as twilight ends.<\/p>
The comet can be found below Rigel<\/a> (Beta Orionis) early in the month, rising slowly and passing within 5\u00b0 of the star on 17\u201323 May.<\/p>
If a tail is visible, it should point towards Rigel in early May. <\/p>
The month closes with Pons\u2013Brooks in Lepus, possibly faded to mag. +6.0.<\/p>
$\"Comet$
Comet 12P\/Pons-Brooks delighted Northern Hemisphere observers in the early part of 2024. Now it’s the Southern Hemisphere’s turn. Credit: Tim Jackson<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Stars and constellations<\/strong><\/h2>
The Milky Way\u2019s most southerly region is brilliantly displayed in May.<\/p>
The closest obvious asterism to the South Celestial Pole is the trapezium in Musca, beneath (south of) the Southern Cross (Crux).<\/p>
Flanking it are two rivals to this claim: Triangulum Australe to the left (east) and the Diamond Cross (part of Carina) to the right (west).<\/p>
Within these are the closest second-magnitude stars to the pole: Atria (Alpha Triangulum Australe) and Miaplacidus (Beta Carinae).<\/p>
Planets<\/strong><\/h2>
Evenings contain no planets in May in the Southern Hemisphere skies.<\/p>
Saturn rises around 01:30 mid-month, followed by Neptune an hour later, Mars at 03:30 and finally Mercury around 05:00.<\/p>
The eastern pre-dawn sky finds Saturn, Mars and Mercury in a line, with the waning crescent Moon in conjunction with each on 4, 5 and 6 May respectively.<\/p>
The month commences with Mars and Neptune only 1\u00b0 apart then swiftly separating.<\/p>
Early May sees the best morning return for Mercury this year, rising one hour before dawn.<\/p>
Deep-sky objects<\/strong><\/h2>
This month, a trip to Corvus the Crow, whose most obvious feature is four main stars in a trapezium shape.<\/p>
The northeast corner is mag. +3.0 Delta (\u03b4) Corvi, a nice naked-eye double with mag. +4.3 Eta (\u03b7) Corvi 0.6\u00b0 away.<\/p>
Binoculars show them to be blue and yellowish-white respectively.<\/p>
Move 4\u00b0 northeast to discover the double star Struve 1669 (RA 12h 41.3m, dec. \u201313\u00b0 01\u2019). It\u2019s ideal for small telescopes, presenting two yellow components with matching brightness (mag. +5.9), separated by a snug 5.5 arcseconds.<\/p>
Corvus is home to a little-known but bright and large planetary nebula<\/a>, NGC 4361 (RA 12h 24.5m, dec. \u201318\u00b0 47\u2019).<\/p>
The nebula is a circular disc (around 100 arcseconds across) with a central 13th-magnitude star. Its total magnitude is +10.5, being brightest in the centre and gradually fading towards the edge.<\/p>
$\"Spitzer$
Spitzer Space Telescope image of NGC 4361. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Southern Hemisphere Star Charts<\/strong><\/h2>
Access this month’s and all previous star charts for the Southern Hemisphere by clicking on the links below.<\/p>
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart May 2024 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart April 2024 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart March 2024 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart February 2024 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart January 2024 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart December 2023 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart November 2023 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>***
***Southern Hemisphere Star Chart October 2023 (PDF)<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n***
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