This month look for the star Denebola, the "Tail of the Lion". Denebola lies 36 light years away, so if you were born in 1978, then Denebola is your birthday star this year. Denebola is the 3rd brightest star in the Zodiac, so it’s very visible from town.

Denebola is young in star years. At 400 million years old, it’s less than 1/10th the sun’s age. It’s more massive than the sun and therefore hotter. Denebola has a surface temperature around 15,000 degrees F, making it white hot. The star is 1.5 times larger in diameter and rotates faster than the sun to boot. Together, its increased temperature and size means Denebola emits 12 times as much energy as the Sun. Some of this energy is absorbed by a disk of dust surrounding the star and re-emitted within the infrared region of the spectrum. We can’t see the disk around Denebola, but astronomers can infer its presence from the star’s excess infrared radiation. Perhaps there are planets forming around Denebola or planets are battering each other to pieces.

May Overview

* By the end of May, the sun rises 19 minutes earlier and sets 32 minutes later. The length of our day increases by 51 minutes over the course of the month.
* Mercury gives its best display for the year this month. Look for it in the west after sunset during the second half of May.
* Venus is the Morning Star this month.
* Mars remains high in the sky all the while fading in brightness as Earth pulls farther away from it.
* Jupiter is approaching closer to the west horizon every night and will disappear from the evening sky by the end of June.
* Saturn reaches opposition this month and is at its brightest for the year.
* The Eta Aquarids meteor shower peaks on the night of the 6th and morning of the 7th.
* There’s a chance we could observe a new meteor shower on the night of the 23rd and morning of the 24. This could also be a nice shower and well worth your time to observe.