And the score is ... two to nothing

Clouds two, astronomer zero. That is the way it was last week when I was looking forward to viewing the conjunction of a couple of planets and the moon. I know, you will tell me there is always a next time, and that may be true for some things, but for that particular conjunction it may be a very long time. Like about a month.

That same moon-Jupiter-Neptune conjunction that I missed on May 17 will repeat in the early morning hours of June 19. This time I will need to be out earlier with my anti-cloud dance.

There was also a planned public viewing scheduled for Friday evening, May 22, and after three days of clear skies ... you guessed it, clouds. I guess we now know how to get it to rain, schedule an astronomical event.

At about 9 p.m. MDT today (Thursday) look for a slender crescent moon just to the left of a very dim constellation, Cancer, the Crab. The group is made up of four third- and fourth-magnitude stars shaped like the peace symbol from the 1960s.

Others have described it as looking like the hood ornament from a Mercedes Benz automobile. A very dark-sky place will be needed to find it.

Whatever you think it looks like, look to the middle where the lines from the outlying stars converge. There you will find a marvelous little gem, an open star cluster, M4, the Beehive. So called because it looks like a small swarm of bees, all buzzing around their hive. It is a great sight in binoculars. Telescopes tend to overwhelm the cluster, but still can be used for a closer viewing.

Off up to the left of Cancer is our old friend, stately Leo the Lion, with its backward question mark indicating its head and mane and a trio of stars forming a triangle for hindquarters.

Just below those hindquarters look for the bright object located there. That is the marvelous, vanilla-yellow, ringed planet Saturn.

Saturn's rings won't be in the full display of their glory because, as observed from Earth, they appear to almost be flat. We here on the home planet are passing through Saturn's ring plane and from now until sometime next year that is all we will see, flat rings.

The planet takes about 29 and a half years to orbit the Sun. During that time, in periods of roughly seven and a half years, the ring plane as seen from Earth, will move from fully open (viewing the north face of the rings) to closed to fully open (viewing the south face of the rings) back to closed. Right now we are approaching one of the closed phases.

On Sept. 4, about two weeks before its conjunction with the sun on Sept. 17, the rings will be in the fully closed position as viewed from Earth. Alas, for us this event will occur on the far side of the Sun and we will not be able to observe it.

SKY WATCH: In the early morning hours of Friday, May 29, if you are up and about, at about 4 a.m. MDT, locate the bright planet Jupiter. It will be about one-fourth of the way up in the southeast sky. Using your binoculars, and Jupiter as a locater, find the dimmer outer planet Neptune. Don't confuse the slightly brighter star Mu Capricorni which is just up and right of Jupiter. Neptune is almost directly above the bright planet. Also, while you are there, see if you can spot the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. Three will be to the right and one to the left. The planetary pair will be together for the next several months giving us further opportunity to examine the duo.

On Friday, May 29, the moon will join Regulus, the brightest star in Leo in the mid-evening hours. The next night, Saturday, May 30, look for the first-quarter moon just below and right of our old friend Saturn. On Tuesday, June 2, a slender crescent Moon will join bright Spica.

NEXT TIME: More astronomical blathering.