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May 3: The Moon and Antares
In honor of May the 4th, grab your telescope and head out shortly after sunset to catch NGC 2359, often called Thor’s Helmet but also — and of particular importance today — the Baby Yoda Nebula.
Located in northeastern Canis Major, the nebula sets a few hours after the Sun. By about 9 P.M. local daylight time, you’ll find it roughly 20° high in the southwest, to the far upper left of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. From that star, it’s about an 8.8° jump northeast to land on NGC 2359, which surrounds the 11th-magnitude star WR7, also cataloged as HIP 35378. The nebula is visible as a small, 8’-wide fuzzy patch in scopes smaller than 6 inches. Large telescopes (10 inches or bigger) will start to bring out its structure: a round edge with two protrusions, both pointing in the same direction. These look like the dome of Grogu’s head, framed by his pointed ears.
WR7 is a hot, massive Wolf-Rayet star some 16 times our Sun’s mass. It is blowing away huge amounts of material over time, which feed into and create the nebula around it. Such stars don’t live very long, only 10 million years or so, ultimately dying in supernova explosions.
Sunrise: 5:56 A.M.
Sunset: 7:58 P.M.
Moonrise: 11:22 P.M.
Moonset: 7:17 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (90%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.
