Some action in May: Moon vs. Mars & Phoenix vs. Mars

The current highlight in Earth's skies is the evening apparition of Mercury, of course, with the planet currently close to the Plejades low in the Western sky as shown in images from May 1+2 and May 2; on May 6 the young Moon will be near. Other space spectaculars include

• on the morning of May 5 the Eta Aquarids (the more South you are the better),
  
  
• on May 10 a daylight occultation of Mars by the Moon (e.g. in Germany), and
  
  
• on May 26 (UTC) the landing of Phoenix on Mars in its arctic region.

In other news here are the sky track of comet Boattini (now around 7.5 mag.), • an "anaphoric clock" or star disk in Kansas and • another attempt to save the night skies from light pollution, this time in California's Anza-Borrego State Park, which is even causing some interest outside the area. • And here are some cool sunset optical phenomena from Paranal.