Throughout the early hours of 5 May, a nice grouping of solar system objects will be visible in the southern sky.
The waning gibbous moon will find itself sitting between Saturn and Mars. The pale ochre spot of Saturn will be the nearer of the planets to the moon, it will also be the fainter of the two. The frigid desert world of Mars will be about four times further from the moon to the east but conspicuously brighter and redder than Saturn.
The chart shows the view at 04:00 BST on 5 May. If you are planning to view, keep an eye out just to the east of Mars. With clear conditions, you may see some shooting stars from the Eta Aquarid meteor shower.
Northern observers are handicapped because the shower’s radiant never climbs high in the sky but those in the south usually get a fine display. This year, the proximity of the moon to the radiant will wash out some of the fainter meteors.
