MAY ASTRONOMY

By Robert Victor

Venus, the brilliant planet in the west at dusk, ascends to its highest position in the evening sky this month— while the stars temporarily surrounding it steadily drop away.

Use monthly evening twilight sky chart to track Venus, Mars and bright stars. During May, watch Rigel, the Pleiades, Aldebaran, Sirius and Betelgeuse, in order, exit the western sky, leaving the “Spring Arch” of Procyon, Pollux, Castor and Capella to remain at month’s end.

The May 2023 Sky Calendar, illustrating many of the events described in this column, together with a constellation map for the month’s evening sky, are available for free at www. abramsplanetarium.org/skycalendar.

Venus, at magnitude -4.1 to -4.4, rules the evening sky! Throughout May, Venus remains above the unobstructed horizon for more than three hours after sunset. If observed at sunset or in twilight in early May, Venus attains its greatest altitude for this entire evening apparition: In May’s second week, Venus is nearly 41° up at sunset and 32° up at mid-twilight (when the sun is 9° below the horizon). Even at nightfall, when twilight ends with the sun 18° down, Venus is still 22° up on May 1, and 18° up on May 31. This month, Venus can be spotted in daylight, 43° to 45° to the upper left of the setting sun. Near the time of sunset or not long after is best for using a telescope to follow Venus’ changing appearance. In May, the disk grows from 17 to 23 arcseconds across, while its phase decreases from about two-thirds to just over half illuminated (66% to 52%). In June, the crescent Venus will become large enough to be resolved even through binoculars!

Evening events: As the sky darkens on May 1, Venus appears between Beta and Zeta Tauri, tips of the Bull’s horns. Find faint Mars, of magnitude +1.4, nearly 26° to Venus’ upper left, in Gemini, 6° below Pollux. As Venus shifts 1.1° to 1°, and Mars shifts nearly 0.6° daily against stars this month, watch for these events: On May 8, Mars is 5° south of Pollux. On May 10-12, Venus passes 3.6° north of third-magnitude stars Eta and Mu in the foot of Castor in Gemini. On May 16, Mars-PolluxCastor are in a straight line, and Venus is 0.7° north of third-magnitude Epsilon Gem

On May 20, the young moon, a 2% crescent, appears very low in the west-northwest at dusk, 28° to the lower right of Venus. On May 21, the 7% crescent moon is 16° to the lower right of Venus. The brilliant planet forms an isosceles triangle with Pollux and Castor, within 9° of each. From May 22-24, watch the moon pass Venus, Pollux, Castor and Mars. On May 22, the 12% moon appears 5° to the lower right of Venus. By May 23, the moon has leapt to nearly 7° to Venus’ upper left while waxing to 19%. Pollux appears an exceptionally close 2° to the moon’s upper right, while Mars appears within

9° to the moon’s upper left. On May 24, the 27% moon is nearly 5° above Mars.

On May 26, the 46% moon, almost at first quarter (half full) phase, is within 4° to the upper right of Regulus, heart of Leo. On May 28 and 29, Venus passes 4° south of Pollux. On May 30, the moon (now gibbous, at 82%) appears 5° to the upper right of Spica, while Mars passes aphelion, the point in its orbit most distant from sun. On May 31, the VenusMars gap has closed to 11°, while Mars has faded to magnitude +1.6. On June 1, VenusPollux-Castor are arranged in a straight line; Mars appears in the Beehive Cluster that night and next. Use binoculars or a telescope after nightfall to see the cluster’s brightest stars. Morning events: Saturn, in Aquarius, glows at magnitude +0.9 in the east-southeast to southeast as dawn brightens. A telescope shows the rings tipped only 8.0° to 7.4° from edgewise.

On May 7, the red star Antares, heart of the Scorpion, appears just 1.5° east (to the left) of the 96% moon. Earlier that morning, the moon will occult Sigma in Scorpius, the third-magnitude star just west-northwest (to the right) of Antares, and one of the “outworks of the heart.” Seen from the Coachella Valley, the star’s disappearance behind the moon’s leading sunlit edge occurs at 3:04 a.m., with the reappearance at the moon’s trailing dark edge at 3:49 a.m. A telescope will be required to observe disappearance and reappearance.

In the brightening dawns in May, the Summer Triangle of Vega, Altair and Deneb passes overhead; Arcturus sinks low in the west to west-northwest; and Antares sinks low in the southwest. Fomalhaut, mouth of the Southern Fish, appears far to the lower right of Saturn. Jupiter rises into prominence in the eastern sky later in the month. See our morning twilight chart with the online version of this article.

On May 13, a fat 41 percent crescent moon appears near Saturn. On May 16, locate recently emerged Jupiter (magnitude -2.1) very low, north of east, 14°-15° to the lower left of the

Planets and Bright Stars in Evening Mid-Twilight For May, 2023

This sky chart is drawn for latitude 34 degrees north, but may be used in southern U.S. and northern Mexico.

Evening mid-twilight occurs when the Sun is 9° below the horizon. May 1: 43 minutes after sunset. 15: 44 " " " 31: 46 " " "

12 percent waning crescent moon. On May 17, a 6 percent moon occults Jupiter. From most of California and Western Nevada, Jupiter is already hidden at moonrise. From Palm Springs, Jupiter reappears at the moon’s upper dark edge at 5:13 a.m. Since the event occurs in bright twilight, the use of a telescope is recommended. Mercury, to the lower left of Jupiter, brightens from a too-faint magnitude +1.6, when 6° from Jupiter (hidden by the moon) on May 17, to +1.0 when 7° from Jupiter on May 22; and to magnitude +0.4 when 12° from Jupiter on May 31. On May 28, Saturn appears at quadrature, 90° west of the sun. Spaceship Earth is then heading directly toward Saturn. Use a telescope so see Saturn’s shadow cast upon the rings, at the west-northwest limb of the planet.

Visible all night: On May 31, Antares, red supergiant heart of the Scorpion, appears at opposition to the sun. Look for it low in the southeast at dusk, highest in the south in middle of night, and low in the southwest at dawn. Its positions at dusk and dawn are shown on our two twilight charts.

The Astronomical Society of the Desert will host a star party on Saturday, May 13, at the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitor Center; and on Saturday, May 20, at Sawmill Trailhead, a site in the Santa Rosa Mountains at elevation 4,000 feet. For dates and times of these and other star parties in 2023, and maps and directions to the two sites, visit astrorx.org.

Robert C. Victor originated the Abrams Planetarium monthly Sky Calendar in October 1968 and still produces issues occasionally, including May 2023. He enjoys being outdoors sharing the beauty of the night sky and other wonders of nature.

The

iconic Plaza Theatre opened in 1936 when it hosted the premiere of Greta Garbo’s film Camille. It was long used as a movie theater, and got a new life as the home of The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies from 1991 until 2014. (See our CV History piece on the Follies on Page 10.)

Since the Follies shut down, the Plaza has been mostly vacant, and its condition has deteriorated. Its continued existence was in question—until the Palm Springs Plaza Theatre Foundation was founded, with aspirations of revitalizing the theater.

Today, the theater’s existence is no longer in question. In fact, it’s about to become a masterpiece.

Before renovations begin in earnest this summer, the Plaza is open every Tuesday evening from 7 to 8 p.m., through Tuesday, June 6, for a series of open houses that Palm Springs Plaza Theatre Foundation board president J.R. Roberts is calling “Next Act.”

“‘Next Act’ was born out of a desire to get the community more involved,”

Roberts said during a recent phone interview. “We’ve been working away, and we’ve been getting good coverage in the process, but we really wanted the community to come in, see the plans, see what it was going to be, offer their input, and hopefully help us finish up the fundraising, and help us with other things. We thought that anybody who’s interested can come in and talk to us, see a presentation, and also get a chance to see the theater before we start the work. They can sort of say farewell to the old shell, so that they have the before-andafter experience.”

The open house series comes on the heels of November’s big rock concert, dubbed Rock the Plaza, which featured a list of stand-out musicians with desert ties such as Spike Edney (tour musical director and keyboardist for Queen), Brian Ray (guitarist with Paul McCartney), Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer Matt Sorum (Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver, The Cult), Alice Cooper, Josh Homme (Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age) and Paul Rodgers (Bad Company, Free). The event sold out and helped the foundation get closer to its $16 million fundraising goal. The ”Next Act” series started in March, and Roberts said the response has been “fantastic.”

“I think we had something like 65 people in the theater last Tuesday,” he said. “It’s going really, really well, and the community is hugely enthusiastic about what we’re doing, and very supportive of the project. As somebody who’s been involved in municipal governance and public service and been elected, it is such a pleasure to be part of a project that is universally loved. That’s a rarity. For myself, and for my amazing board of directors, it’s so much fun, because we’ve had such success, and the community is turning out and helping financially. It’s important to them, apparently, that this theater gets done, and that it’s kept preserved.”

While the foundation is working with renowned preservation-architecture firm Architectural Resources Group, and already has plans and artist renderings for the renovation, Roberts said they’re taking suggestions for what people would like to see in the new era of the theater.

“What makes these open houses so much fun and so interesting is meeting like-minded people who are community-oriented and excited,” Roberts said. “They always bring us new questions, and they always bring us comments. We’re so thrilled that they challenge us, and they remind us of certain things—and we’ve taken a few of the ideas that we’ve heard, and we’ve incorporated them.

“We literally have an army of professionals working on this project with the architects and consultants, and we count on them and challenge them a lot, but the community comes in with other ideas, and reminds us about different groups that might be there, or different types of entertainment. They’ve asked us if we’ve considered the hearing impaired, or this or that, and it really helps.”

Roberts said Rock the Plaza was a vital part of building excitement around the Plaza Theatre’s future.

“Rock the Plaza was very important for two reasons: It showed us that the theater could be used and was desired for musical events, and it also brought so much press and so much community involvement,” Roberts said. “Today I was in the grocery store, and a man stopped me just to tell me how much he loved that event, and how excited he is about the theater. That particular event resonated with the community. Palm Springs is an older community, by and large, but that demographic could be changing, and I think by having a fun musical rock ’n’ roll event, it showed that the Plaza can do things that cater to younger people and families.

“Because of its size, it offers a real opportunity for people to participate. It’s 700 seats, and that’s a lot for a town of our size, so it becomes a meaningful venue in the scheme of things. … The Plaza always was really an important venue.”

When the renovated Plaza opens, it will feature diverse entertainment offerings—and honor its history by showing films.

“The Plaza was built as a movie theater; it was never designed for anything else,” Roberts said. “As tastes change, as lifestyles change and demographics change, so, too, does the theater. The theater will always honor the past, of course, with films, but the most exciting part is the growth for live theater, for live music. The theater has done that to a small degree in the past, but now it can be more of an ongoing, regular venue for live music and live performances, as well as lecture series. We’ll honor the history simply by expanding the programming that was always there and that people loved.”

Roberts said he’s excited about the Plaza’s future, after years of other people having doubts.

“This is not a dream anymore. This is happening,” Roberts said. “The Plaza Theatre will be fully restored to its original Hollywood glamor and splendor. We have $13.5 million towards our $16 million goal. We’re starting work this summer. This is real.”