What's Up for May 17-23

The ISS will pass nearly overhead, rising from the southwest at 8:49 pm setting on the northeastern horizon six minutes later.

Jupiter and Saturn will be within five degrees of each other, rising around 1:30 am and visible until sunrise.

Look for the star Vega in the east-northeastern evening sky, then look for the skewed box of 4 stars forming the rest of the constellation Lyra, the Lyre, hanging beneath.

Another decent ISS pass begins at 8:51 pm from the west, setting six minutes later.

Ten Starlink satellites will rise from the northwest beginning at 10 pm, separated by 10-20 seconds each. At magnitude 2.9, this is the brightest Starlink pass of the week. For comparison, Polaris (the pole star) at the end of the handle of the Big Dipper is about 2.5 times brighter.

(Astronomical) summer is exactly a month away. Look for Vega, Deneb and Altair, the stars of the summer triangle asterism rising in the east by midnight. By the solstice, they'll all be above the horizon by shortly after sunset.

Look west evening shortly after sunset for Venus and Mercury, just a few degrees apart. Find Venus (it's the brightest object in the western sky once the Sun sets), then look for Mercury at the down and to the left on Thursday.

Venus outshines Mercury by a factor of 30 because Mercury is 3.5 times further away and not as reflective as Venus' cloud tops.

On Friday, Mercury will be up and to the left of Venus.

On Saturday, look for the thin, day-old, waxing crescent Moon below Venus and Mercury low on the northwestern horizon.