Mercury, Venus appear very low in the eastern sky just before sunrise – if seeing Mercury was a challenge last week, it will be even harder this week. The waning crescent Moon joins the two planets until May 3rd. Saturn, Jupiter and the star Antares appear southern sky early in the morning. In this image, I have the light pollution set to high – this is typically what I can see from a close suburb to Detroit. This is the same patch of sky seen from a dark sky site. Mars and the star Betelgeuse are low on the horizon after sunset; the winter constellations will soon be gone. M-109 – “Vacuum Cleaner Galaxy” Messier 109 (also known as NGC 3992) is a barred spiral galaxy exhibiting a weak inner ring structure around the central bar approximately 83.5 ± 24 million light-years[3]away in the constellation Ursa Major. M109 can be seen southeast of the star Phecda (γ UMa). – Wikipedia Where did the name “Vacuum Cleaner Galaxy” come from? It’s … Continue reading →