Now you can Ask the Astronomer . Saturn, well below and right of Jupiter, is virtually out of the picture until it returns to the morning sky in late June. Keep your eye on this part of the sky next month. Throughout the first half of May, even as Jupiter makes its exit, Mercury emerges for what will be its best evening apparition in 2001 for skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere. And on May 24, it will be Mercury s turn to accompany the young Moon in an evening celestial composition.
Image is updated every four hours.
Put the sky in the palm of your hand. Jeff Kanipe is the author of A Skywatcher's Year , an astronomy guide just published by Cambridge University Press. The images in Skywatch are produced by Starry Night software . The waxing crescent moon is poised above Jupiter, which, along with Saturn, is rapidly sinking toward the sun's glare. The outer solar system in April, 2001.