Starwatch Newsletter Minnesota Starwatch is a newsletter describing the night sky in the Midwest. It is updated montly, and is produced by the Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota 116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Hello, this is Minnesota Starwatch for May, 2003.

Jupiter will be very prominent in the western sky after sunset. It will lie right in the middle of the constellation Cancer (the Crab) at the beginning of the month. Cancer is the least conspicuous figure in the Zodiac with much larger constellations Gemini and Leo to either side and Hydra stretching off to the East. Mythology apologizes for its being there by the story of how the Crab was crushed by Hercules for pinching his toe during his contest with Hydra, and the god Juno subsequently threw it into the sky.

Just below Jupiter in the sky is Beta Cancri, the second brightest star in the constellation. A rather average star in terms of brightness, Beta Cancri is a red giant about 100 times further away from the Sun than Alpha Centari, the Sun's nearest neighbor. This otherwise undistinguished star has had its position in the sky measured so accurately that it is considered an astrometric reference star, useful for astronomers who need to calibrate their coordinate systems.

Friday night telescope viewing begins at 9:00 pm. Please call 612-626-0034 for more information.

For those interested in the Minnesota Astronomical Society, call 952-467-2426 for information their upcoming events.

Minnesota Starwatch is available on-line at http://www.astro.umn.edu/Outreach/pub_out.html For fun Astronomy Outreach programs or how you can help build the new Minnesota Planetarium, please call 612-630-6151 or visit http://www.mplanetarium.org.

Also, shows are now playing publicly at the Como Planetarium on a limited basis, please call 651-293-5398 for more info! This has been Minnesota Starwatch, produced by the University of Minnesota Astronomy Department in cooperation with WCCO Weather Center.

Last Updated: Tue May 13 12:44:12 2003