Astro News

Friday, February 10

Saturn shines below the Moon this evening, as shown at right.
Although they look close together, Saturn is currently 3,000 times farther
away.

Saturday, February 11

Saturn shines upper right of the Moon this evening.

Sunday, February 12

Full Moon. Look below the Moon for Regulus. Every year, Regulus's
evening arrival in the east is an early sign of spring's approach.

Monday, February 13

A small telescope will always show Titan, Saturn's largest and most
extraordinary moon. Tonight and tomorrow Titan is four ring-lengths
to Saturn's east.

Tuesday, February 14

Another sign of spring in the offing: in early evening the Big Dipper
is well up in the northeast, standing upright on its handle.

Wednesday, February 15

Every amateur astronomer with a telescope has turned it on the
Pleiades - though the cluster is too big to fit in most scopes' fields of
view.

Thursday, February 16

The red long-period variable star R Canis Minoris is brightening toward
a predicted late-February maximum of about 8th magnitude.

This Week's Planet Roundup

Mercury (about magnitude -1) is emerging into view very low in the west
during evening twilight. Look for it about 45 minutes after sunset
especially late in the week.

Venus (magnitude -4.5) is in grand view during dawn; look for it low in
the southeast. A telescope shows that it's a thickening crescent.

Mars (magnitude +0.5) shines yellow-orange very high in the south at dusk
and in the west later in the evening. Watch it closing in on the Pleiades
day by day; it passes just 2° south of the cluster's center on
February 16th, 17th, and 18th. Also, compare Mars to slightly-fainter
Aldebaran nearby. Which is deeper orange? Mars continues to dwindle into
the distance; in a telescope it's only 8 arcseconds wide, a tiny, gibbous
blob.

Jupiter (magnitude -2.1) rises in the east-southeast around midnight. It
dominates the southern sky by early dawn - an excellent time for telescopic
planet viewing!

Saturn (magnitude -0.2) passed opposition on January 27th and now glows
in the east in twilight. It's below Pollux and Castor and a bit farther
left of similar-looking Procyon.

Uranus and Neptune are hidden behind the glow of the Sun.

Pluto (magnitude 14) is in the southeast before dawn.

2003 UB313 (magnitude 19) is getting low in the southwest after dark.




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The Lone Sidewalk Astronomer of Rosamond
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