Key Takeaways
- Saturn returns to the pre-dawn sky — use the crescent Moon as a guide on May 13
- Venus and Jupiter dominate the evening, closing to about 25° apart by mid-week
- New Moon on May 16 means the darkest skies of the month for deep-sky observing
- Venus passes between the horns of Taurus from May 11–15 — a lovely naked-eye sight
- Galaxy season is at its peak — hunt the Whirlpool Galaxy and Virgo Cluster under dark skies
📑 Table of Contents
After a week dominated by the Eta Aquariids and a bright gibbous Moon, conditions are shifting in our favour. The Moon is slimming down toward New phase on Saturday, Venus is blazing a trail through Taurus toward Jupiter, and — if you're willing to set an alarm — Saturn is making its first appearance of 2026 in the pre-dawn sky. Here's everything worth looking up for from the UK this week.
The Headline: Saturn Is Back
The ringed planet has been hiding behind the Sun since late February, but this week it finally edges above the eastern horizon before sunrise. On Sunday morning (May 10), Saturn sits barely 4–5° above the east horizon around 04:00 BST — so low that you'll need a completely unobstructed view and a pair of binoculars to pick it out of the bright twilight.
The best morning to try is Wednesday May 13, when a slender 16%-lit crescent Moon hangs about 6° to Saturn's upper right. The two fit neatly into the same binocular field of view, and the Moon acts as a convenient pointer straight to the planet. Look east from around 03:45 BST, about an hour before sunrise.
Don't expect Saturn's rings to resolve at this altitude — the planet is still being smeared by the thick atmosphere near the horizon. But just knowing you're watching the ringed world return is a satisfying moment, and it'll climb higher each week from here. By late June, Saturn will be comfortably placed for telescopes. If you want to track it all year, our Saturn observing guide has the full timeline.
Evening Planets: Venus Chases Jupiter
The real showpiece this week is in the west after sunset, where the two brightest planets in the solar system are putting on a slow-motion chase that builds toward a spectacular conjunction on June 9.
Venus is unmissable — it's the first "star" you'll see as twilight fades, blazing at magnitude –4.3 in the west-northwest. This week, Venus is threading its way between the horns of Taurus the Bull. From May 11–15, watch it slide past the stars Elnath and Zeta Tauri on either side. It's a lovely naked-eye sight, and binoculars make the star-field pop.
Jupiter sits about 25° to Venus's upper left in Gemini, shining at magnitude –1.9. It's still bright, but it's getting lower each evening and sets about two hours after the Sun. The gap between the two planets is closing by roughly a degree per night, and by the end of May they'll be less than 10° apart. The real payoff comes on June 9 when they'll be just 1.6° apart — but even now, the sight of both planets burning in the same stretch of sky is worth stepping outside for.
You can see both planets from about 30 minutes after sunset (around 21:00 BST) through to about 23:00 BST when Jupiter dips below the horizon. For more on this developing conjunction, see our full guide to the Venus-Jupiter meetup.
The Moon This Week
The Moon is your friend this week — or rather, its absence is. We start Sunday with a 45%-lit waning crescent that rises in the small hours, and by Friday it's a hair-thin sliver barely visible before dawn. New Moon arrives on Saturday May 16 at 21:01 BST, giving us progressively darker skies all week.
Key Moon moments:
- Sunday May 10: Waning crescent (45%), rises around 02:00 BST in the southeast. Early risers can spot it easily.
- Tuesday May 12: Crescent (25%) with lovely earthshine on the dark portion — photograph it with any camera on a tripod.
- Wednesday May 13: Thin crescent (16%) near Saturn before dawn — the highlight of the morning sky this week.
- Friday–Saturday May 15–16: Moon is essentially invisible. Perfect conditions for deep-sky observing and astrophotography.
If you've never noticed earthshine — the ghostly glow on the Moon's unlit side, caused by sunlight bouncing off Earth — this week's crescent phases are ideal. It's most obvious on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.
Deep Sky Under Dark Skies
With the Moon out of the way from Thursday onwards, this is one of the best deep-sky windows of the month. May is the tail end of galaxy season in the UK, and some of the finest targets in the northern sky are perfectly placed.
Naked eye: The spring constellations are at their best after 22:00 BST. Leo is high in the southwest, with the distinctive sickle asterism easy to trace. Boötes and its bright orange star Arcturus sit almost overhead. The Summer Triangle (Vega, Deneb, Altair) is already rising in the east by midnight, a preview of the months ahead.
Binoculars: Sweep the area between Canes Venatici and Ursa Major for the globular cluster M3 — a fuzzy ball of ancient stars that resolves beautifully in a small telescope. M13, the Great Globular in Hercules, is climbing the eastern sky and becomes a showpiece from midnight onwards.
Telescope: This is your last good chance to hunt galaxies before they slide into the west. The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) in Canes Venatici is perfectly placed — a face-on spiral with a companion galaxy connected by a bridge of stars. M101 in Ursa Major is another face-on spiral, though it needs dark skies and patience to see well. And if you point your scope at the region between Virgo and Coma Berenices, you'll stumble into the Virgo Cluster — dozens of galaxies in a single sweep, all between 50 and 60 million light-years away.
Get Alerts for Clear Nights
Quick-Glance Planner
Here's your night-by-night rundown. Sunset is around 20:45 BST, with full darkness not arriving until about 23:00 BST (we're approaching the shortest nights of the year, so make the most of what darkness we get).
Whatever you're planning to observe this week — whether it's a quick glance at Venus and Jupiter or a full evening of galaxy hunting — sign up for alerts above and we'll tell you which nights are worth it. Clear skies!
