Calendar

Conjunction of Mars & Moon

The planet Mars will appear in conjunction with the Moon in the western sky after sunset on this May 15, 2021.

International Day of Light

The International Day of Light is a global initiative that provides an annual focal point for the continued appreciation of light and the role it plays in science, culture and art, education, and sustainable development, and in fields as diverse as medicine, communications, and energy. The broad theme of light will allow many different sectors […]

St. Brendan, patron of navigators who steer by celestial bodies

Brendan of Clonfert (c. AD 484 – c. 577) Brénainn moccu Alti or Brénainn maccu Alti (Irish: Naomh Bréanainn or Naomh Breandán; Latin: Brendanus; Icelandic: (heilagur) Brandanus), also referred to as "Brendán moccu Altae" (Brendan of the Fosterling Folk), called "the Navigator", "the Voyager", "the Anchorite", and "the Bold", is one of the early Irish monastic saints and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He is primarily renowned for his legendary […]

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day

Theme: "Accelerating Digital Transformation in challenging times​"​. ​​ World Telecommunication and Information Society Day ​(WTISD) has been celebrated annually every 17 May since 1969 to mark the founding of ITU and the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention in 1865. The COVID-19 crisis has not only highlighted the critical role of information and communication […]

First Quarter Moon

The Moon is at First Quarter on May 19th - it is visible high in the southern sky in early evening.

World Metrology Day.

World Metrology Day is an annual celebration of the signature of the Metre Convention on 20 May 1875 by representatives of seventeen nations. The Convention set the framework for global collaboration in the science of measurement and in its industrial, commercial and societal applications. The original aim of the Metre Convention - the world-wide uniformity […]

Andrei Sakharov, Nobel Laureate (b. 1921)

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov (21 May 1921 – 14 December 1989) was a Soviet and Russian nuclear physicist, dissident, Nobel laureate, and activist for disarmament, peace and human rights. He became renowned as the designer of the Soviet Union's RDS-37, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov later became an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet Union, for which […]

Towel Day

Towel Day is an annual celebration on the 25th of May, as a tribute to the late author Douglas Adams (1952-2001). On that day, fans around the universe carry a towel in his honor. Towel Day 2021 marks the 43rd anniversary of the first BBC broadcast of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1978).

Moon at Perigee

The Moon is at perigee, its closest point to Earth in its monthly orbit, on May 25th.

Full Moon

The Full Moon rises at sunset, is visible all night, and is high in the sky around midnight. May's Full Moon is called the Flower Moon by The Old Farmer’s Almanac.