Calendar

Mercury at Perihelion

Mercury's 88-day orbit around the Sun will carry it to its closest point to the Sun – its perihelion – at a distance of 0.31 AU from the Sun.

Full Moon

The Full Moon rises at sunset, is visible high in the sky around midnight, and is visible all night.

Moon at Perigee

Supermoon: Full Moon at the Moon's perigee - the Moon's closest point to Earth in its monthly orbit.  

Conjunction of Uranus & the Sun

Uranus will pass close to the Sun in the sky as its orbit carries it around the far side of the solar system from the Earth.

May Day

May Day is a public holiday usually celebrated on 1 May or the first Monday of May. It is an ancient festival of spring and a current traditional spring holiday in many European cultures. Dances, singing, and cake are usually part of the festivities. In 1889, May Day was chosen as the date for International Workers' Day by the Socialists and Communists of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago. International Workers' […]

Last Quarter Moon

The Moon is at Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) - rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise.

Arthur Leonard Schawlow, Nobel Prize, co-inventor of Laser, born 1921

Arthur Leonard Schawlow (May 5, 1921 – April 28, 1999) was an American physicist and co-inventor of the laser with Charles Townes. His central insight, which Townes overlooked, was the use of two mirrors as the resonant cavity to take maser action from microwaves to visible wavelengths. He shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nicolaas Bloembergen and Kai Siegbahn for his work using lasers to determine atomic energy levels […]