Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The full "Flower Moon" rises this week. (Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images) See A Red Supergiant Star Beside The Full' Flower Moon:' The Night Sky This Week Each Monday, I pick out North America's celestial highlights for the week ahead (which also apply to mid-northern latitudes in the northern hemisphere), but be sure to check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, astronomy, eclipses and more. The Night Sky This Week: May 20-26, 2024 This week sees the rise of the "Flower Moon," the fifth full moon of 2024, but there's plenty more to see in the skies above.
Here's everything you need to know about stargazing and astronomy this week: Double Star Of The Week: Double-Double In Lyra Monday, May 20: Moon And Spica Look south after sunset, and you'll see a 94%-lit waxing gibbous moon a degree or so from Spica, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. Tuesday, May 21: Vega Rising The yardstick for the brightness of all other stars—and at anchor of the summer night sky in the northern hemisphere—Vega can be seen rising in the northeast this week after dark. The source of the alien signal in the movie Contact , Vega is one of the sun's closest neighboring stars at a mere 25 light years.
The fifth-brightest in Earth's night sky and the second brightest in the northern hemisphere after Sirius, Vega will soon dominate the summer night sky as part of the "Summer Triangle" asterism that's overh.
