Tour May's Sky! | April 30th, 2010

Spring is well under way in the Northern Hemisphere, and it's a great time to do a little evening stargazing. You don’t need a telescope to enjoy the stars and planets. Just wear light, longsleeved clothing to ward off the bugs and head outdoors. Plan to stay out for at least a half hour to give your eyes a chance to adapt to the darkness. Even after 10 minutes you’ll see far more stars than when you first stepped outside.

Three bright planets grace May skies this year. Dazzling Venus is well up in the west. Higher and to the left is Mars, and look a little further east to spot Saturn.

Meanwhile, the Big Dipper is almost overhead. Learn how to use the Dipper to find other prominent stars by downloading May's audio sky tour. It's an 5½-megabyte MP3 file that runs nearly 6 minutes long.