In History
Feb. 1, 2003 – Seven astronauts die as the space shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry.
Feb. 3, 1966 – The Soviet Union’s Luna 9 craft makes the first soft landing on the moon.
Feb. 4, 1906 – Birth date of Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930.
Feb. 6, 1971 – U.S. astronaut Alan Shepard, commander of Apollo 14, takes the first golf shots on the moon.
Feb. 15, 1564 – Birth date of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei.
Feb. 19, 1473 – Birth date of Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus, who theorized that the Earth and other planets revolved around the sun.
Feb. 20, 1962 – Astronaut John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth.
Feb. 26, 1842 – Birth date of Camille Flammarion, French author and astronomer whose science fiction novels included theories of intelligent extraterrestrial life.
Moon Phases
First quarter: Feb. 2, 4:13 p.m.; March 4, 12:46 a.m.
Full: Feb. 9, 7:49 a.m. (Snow Moon).
Last quarter: Feb. 16, 2:37 p.m.
New: Feb. 24, 6:35 p.m.
Well, we're nearly half way through the winter. We've had our share of wonderful, frigid starry nights, but there are more to come. No doubt some of us have treated our cabin fever with southward treks in search of warmth.
A side effect of such movement is the appearance of constellations often hidden from our view. For me, the telltale sign is the bright star Canopus, which hovers near the southern horizon at our latitude this time of year. From the southernmost points in the continental U.S., it appears 10-15 degrees above the horizon, some 36 degrees southeast of Sirius, the night sky's brightest star. Canopus ranks number 2.
Located in the constellation Carina, the yellow supergiant is about 310 light years away and about 65 times the diameter of our sun, but it is as bright as 15,000 suns: an impressive neighbor.
Although Canopus is not a target for us, there is a star cluster between it and Sirius that is lovely in binoculars. M41, also known as the Little Beehive, is just 4 degrees south of Sirius on an imaginary line that points toward Canopus. There are about 80 stars in the cluster, which is some 2,000 light years from Earth.
The beautiful constellation Orion is above Canopus and Sirius, ideally situated for viewing in the evening sky this time of year.
Most stargazers are familiar with the magnificent Orion Nebula (M42). It's always worth an extended look through a telescope at low magnification. A lesser known target in Orion is Rigel. The zero-magnitude star has a close, 7th-magnitude companion. Separating the two is a challenge for amateur scopes. Give it a try. You'll need high magnification, tight focus and dead-on collimation.
Taurus is above and to the west of Orion and is home to two easily identifiable star-cluster asterisms, the Pleiades (M45), also known as the Seven Sisters, and the Hyades with red giant Aldebaran shining through as the glaring eye of the bull.
Aside from our moon, Venus is the brightest object in the evening sky, shining at its maximum brightness of magnitude minus 4.6. In early February, it is high in the sky, setting about 4 hours after the sun. A telescope will reveal a fat crescent. About 40 percent of the planet's disk is illuminated as seen from Earth. A thin crescent moon will hover nearby on Feb. 27.
Saturn, in Leo, rises about 8:30 p.m. in early February and two hours earlier by month's end.
Also in Leo, Ceres is one of the best targets in February. Discovered in 1801, it is the largest asteroid (recently designated a "dwarf planet"). About 600 miles in diameter, it shines at magnitude 6.5, so you won't be able to make out the disk, but its nightly movement will be obvious as it loops around the magnitude 2.5 star Zosma. It makes it closest approach to Earth on Feb. 25 when it will be just under 147 million miles away. That's as close as it has been since 1857, and it won't be as close again for a very long time (we're talking millenniums here).
Mercury, Mars and Jupiter all appear in the morning sky before sunrise, although they are hard to see in the twilight. If you have a clear view of the eastern horizon, you might be able to spot all three during the middle of the month about a half hour before sunrise. A tiny sliver of moon will be in the mix on the morning of the 22nd.
Email this article