By Prashant Naik
The chart above shows the night sky over Shillong during the month of May 2020 at 8.00 p.m. Shillong being at 25.5o N,latitude we see mostly northern constellations. The E-W line shows the celestial equator and the line cutting it shows the zodiac line or the sun’s apparent path. The capital letters indicate the name of constellations and the other letters indicate the prominent stars. Planet venus is visible in the western sky during the early night hours only
The prominent constellations visible are Leo, Virgo, Bootes, Libra, Gemini, Ursa major, Auriga, Lyra, Hercules, Hydra, Corvus,Draco and Cepheus.
The constellation of the month is Virgo or the maiden.Virgo is a zodiacal constellation and is second only to Hydra in area.
The most prominent star in the constellation is á, Spica, southern-most of the seven brightest stars, with mag 0ÿ91 and a location 220 light years from the Sun.
The star is a variable, with a spectroscopic binary and appears as a hot white object.
Star ã, of mag 2ÿ5 and an absolute mag of 2ÿ6 is a close binary. It lies at a distance of only 36 light years.
Far to the west of the constellation lies â, Zavijava, of mag 3ÿ8, and to the north å, Vindemiatrix, is a mag 2ÿ86 star of spectral type G9 with an absolute mag of 0ÿ6 at a distance of 90 light years.
Virgo lies adjacent to Coma Berenices and the northern border of Virgo contains many interesting nebulae – all external galaxies.
Most notable are M58, M59, M60, M84, M87, M89 and M90.
On the south-western border (with Corvus) the telescope will reveal the magnificent Sombrero Galaxy (M104). M49 and M61 lie between stars â and å.
Full moon will be on 7thth May and new moon on 22nd May.