{"id":430742,"date":"2026-05-16T15:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T15:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/430742\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T15:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T15:22:12","slug":"new-moon-of-may-2026-brings-stunning-views-of-the-milky-way-venus-and-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/430742\/","title":{"rendered":"New moon of May 2026 brings stunning views of the Milky Way, Venus and Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"

The May new moon arrives this weekend, ushering in several dark moonless nights perfect for exploring the majesty of our Milky Way, glimmering spring constellations and the ever-shifting procession of the planets.<\/p>\n

May’s new moon<\/a> phase occurs at 4:01 p.m. EDT (2001 GMT) on May 16, as the moon<\/a> passes close to the sun<\/a> in the daytime sky.<\/p>\n

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The nights surrounding the new moon present beautifully dark skies for stargazers looking to navigate the sea of stars, nebulas<\/a> and galaxies that haunt the post-sunset realm.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Visible planets<\/p>\n

Turn your gaze west at sunset to spot Venus<\/a> glowing as a bright “evening star<\/a>” a little over 20 degrees above the horizon \u2014 roughly the width of two clenched fists held at arm’s length against the night sky.<\/p>\n

Jupiter<\/a> glows another 20 degrees to the upper left of Venus, with Castor<\/a> and Pollux<\/a>, the brightest stars in the constellation Gemini<\/a>, shining above. A pair of 10X50 binoculars will reveal a shoal of star-like objects surrounding the gas giant<\/a>. These are Jupiter’s largest natural satellites Io<\/a>, Europa<\/a>, Ganymede<\/a> and Callisto<\/a>, which are collectively known as the Galilean Moons<\/a> in honor of their discoverer, the famed Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Early birds are treated to an entirely different cast of planets as Saturn<\/a> shines above the eastern horizon in the hour preceding dawn, with Mars<\/a> rising to its lower left, chased by the golden light of the coming sun. Both Saturn and Mars will cling less than 20 degrees above the horizon at sunrise, so be sure to find a spot with a clear view to the east if you want to catch the planetary duo before they’re lost in the glare of the sun.<\/p>\n

Stars and constellations<\/p>\n

May’s new moon is a great time to spot a trio of celestial animals shining in the spring sky. Our first target is the great lion represented in the constellation Leo<\/a>, whose mane and chest are represented by a sickle-like formation of stars<\/a> that shines above the southwestern horizon after sunset in May, with Regulus at its lowest point.<\/p>\n

\"Space\"<\/p>\n

The second-century Greek philosopher Ptolemy catalogued the constellation almost 2,000 years ago, seeing in it the Nemean Lion<\/a> from the mythological tale of Heracles, which the hero was burdened with slaying as the first of his 12 labors.<\/p>\n

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Starchart showing the locations of the constellations Lynx, Leo and Leo Minor in the spring night sky. (Image credit: Created by Anthony Wood in Canva.)<\/p>\n

Next, look 10 degrees above Leo’s sickle head to find the faint stars of the constellation Leo Minor, the “little lion”. This constellation was created by the Polish astronomer Johannes Hevelius in the year 1690. As a result, there are no great mythological tales of its origin, though it remains a pretty feature between the greater stellar citadels of Leo and Ursa Major<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To the lower right of Leo Minor is the magnitude<\/a> +3.25 star Alpha Lyncis, which forms the leftmost point of the constellation Lynx \u2014 a serpentine formation of eight stars that stretches off to the right above the northwestern horizon for viewers in the Northern Hemisphere. Dark skies surrounding the new moon make Lynx much easier to trace, as it is often hidden in the glare of Earth’s satellite.<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

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An annotated photo of the Milky Way captured by photographer Josh Dury, showing the stars of the Summer Triangle asterism alongside prominent nebulas. (Image credit: Josh Dury)<\/p>\n

Our final target is the glowing core of the Milky Way<\/a>, which puts on a magnificent show between midnight and dawn in mid-May, as it arcs high over the southeastern horizon. A good way to spot the Milky Way<\/a> is by locating the three bright stars Altair<\/a>, Vega<\/a> and Deneb<\/a>, forming a famous asterism<\/a> known as the Summer Triangle<\/a> above the eastern horizon this time of year<\/p>\n

The dense starfield and dark interstellar dust clouds of the galactic core appear as a glowing band passing through Deneb and between Vega and Altair, as it tumbles towards the horizon.<\/p>\n

Read more: Learn the night sky without an app: May’s easiest star-hops for beginners<\/a><\/p>\n

Natural light pollution will be at a minimum, so why not also try to head away from bright city lights to make the most of the monthly pocket of darkness? You can use a trusted website like DarkSky.org<\/a> to find your ideal stargazing location, along with smartphone astronomy applications<\/a> like Stellarium<\/a> or Star Walk 2<\/a> to find \u2014 or identify \u2014 breathtaking night sky objects and constellations<\/a> in the night sky.<\/p>\n

Want to capture your own gorgeous views of our galaxy? Then be sure to read our beginner’s guide to photographing the Milky Way<\/a>, along with our roundups of the top cameras<\/a> and lenses for astrophotography<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: If you would like to share your dark sky astrophotography with Space.com’s readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The May new moon arrives this weekend, ushering in several dark moonless nights perfect for exploring the majesty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-430742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}