Editor's Note: The incorrect StarDate ran in Tuesday's Health & Earth section. Here is the correct StarDate for this week. We apologize for the error.
May 25 Changing the Guard
Some of the brightest stars of winter are dropping from the evening sky this month.
Very low in the west at nightfall, look for bright white Procyon in Canis Minor, the little dog. The "twins" of Gemini, Pollux and Castor, are to the upper right of Procyon.
May 26 Rising Summer
Look low in the east early this evening for three major stars of summer.
In the southeast is Antares, the bright orange "heart" of Scorpius, the scorpion. Scan far to its left for the bright white stars Vega, in Lyra, the harp, and Deneb, in Cygnus, the swan.
May 27 Evening Planets
Jupiter and Saturn, the two biggest planets of the solar system, highlight the evening sky this weekend.
Saturn looks like a bright golden star in the west at nightfall, and sets around midnight. Much-brighter Jupiter is well up in the south as darkness falls.
May 28 Charting a Path
Cygnus, the swan, is a signpost for charting Earth's path through the galaxy.
As you face Cygnus as it rises in the northeast, you are looking forward in our solar system's orbit around the center of the Milky Way. The center of the galaxy is to the right, in Sagittarius.
May 29 M83
The constellation Hydra wriggles across the southwest this evening. The galaxy M83 is near its tail, low in the south at nightfall. Under dark skies, some people can see the galaxy as a smudge of light.
It is the most-distant object visible to the human eye, at about 15 million light-years.
May 30 Moon and Mars
Look for the planet Mars quite close to the Moon before dawn tomorrow.
Mars looks like an orange star just above the Moon. The Moon will be just one day past last quarter, so a bit less than half of it will be illuminated by sunlight.
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