February starts with a Full Moon

Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron.

Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron.

Friday, January 30
The Moon passes 4° north of Jupiter this evening at 9 P.M. EST. The pair is visible most of the night in the central region of Gemini. Early in the evening, the nearly Full Moon hangs to the upper left of bright Jupiter. The gas giant outshines either of the Twins’ brightest stars, Castor and Pollux.

Over in the north, the constellation Camelopardalis arcs above the North Star late tonight. A few degrees from the Giraffe’s magnitude 4.3 alpha star lies Collinder 464 (Cr 464), a bright open cluster that presents a fine target for binoculars or small scopes.

To locate it, scan about 7° northeast of Alpha (α) Camelopardalis – that’s the direction of lower right if you’re looking late tonight, say around 10 P.M. local time. Cr 464 itself covers about 2° of the sky and shines with a combined light around 4th magnitude, making it relatively easy to find despite the lack of a bright nearby star to guide the way. The cluster’s western region contains brighter stars than its eastern half, creating a relatively sharp divide. This cluster is particularly interesting to astronomers because it lies near the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy and its structure shows signs of having been distorted by the gravity of the disk.

Sunrise: 7:10 A.M.
Sunset: 5:17 P.M.
Moonrise: 2:39 P.M.
Moonset: 5:41 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous (96%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40° N 90° W. The Moon’s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.

Let Saturn guide you to Neptune (indicated by the red crosshairs) in the early-evening sky at the end of the month. Credit: Stellarium

Saturday, January 31
Saturn and Neptune have been near neighbors for a while. By the last day of January, the two planets are just 1.7° apart, visible in the early-evening hours and setting before midnight.

About 90 minutes after sunset (roughly 7 P.M. local time), the pair is still 20° above the western horizon. They are located in southwestern Pisces, near the Circlet asterism. Of course, you need no tricks to identify 1st-magnitude Saturn, the brightest light in this part of the sky. Neptune, at magnitude 7.8, is invisible to the naked eye.

With a telescope, home in on Saturn first. Its disk is 16″ across, with rings that appear thin, tilted at an angle of just 2.2° – though this is more than they have been all month. The planet’s brightest moon, Titan, will likely be visible just under 2′ west of Saturn’s center. A few fainter, smaller moons cluster closer to the planet, though these may be more difficult to see.

From Saturn, Neptune is a short slide to the northeast. You may just catch the pair together in a wide-field eyepiece; otherwise you may need to nudge Saturn just slightly out of your field of view to land on Neptune. The solar system’s most distant planet appears just 2″ in diameter. It will likely look like a “flat,” dim star that might have a bluish or grayish hue.

By mid-February, Neptune will sit less than a degree from Saturn, as the former passes due north of the ringed planet.

Sunrise: 7:09 A.M.
Sunset: 5:18 P.M.
Moonrise: 3:56 P.M.
Moonset: 6:31 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous (99%)

Sunday, February 1
Full Moon occurs at 5:09 P.M. EST, bringing the light of the February Snow Moon to our nighttime skies. This name may seem particularly apt, given the weather much of the U.S. has been experiencing as of late! The Snow Moon gains its name from Native American cultures, whose land was similarly likely under a blanket of snow at this time of year. According to the Royal Museums Greenwich, the February Full Moon may also be called the Storm Moon or Hunger Moon.

When the Moon is Full, it rises roughly opposite the setting Sun at dusk and sets opposite the rising Sun and dawn. Its bright light floods the sky all night, reducing the number of stars we can see with our eyes from thousands to hundreds. The Full Moon’s magnitude is about –12.7. Compared with Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, whose magnitude is –1.4, the Full Moon is more than 250,000 times brighter. Observing the Full Moon with binoculars or a telescope can be fun, although you may need to wear sunglasses to keep from squinting!

Sunrise: 7:08 A.M.
Sunset: 5:20 P.M.
Moonrise: 5:13 P.M.
Moonset: 7:11 A.M.
Moon Phase: Full

Monday, February 2
The waning gibbous Moon passes 0.4° due north of Regulus in Leo at 10 P.M. EST this evening. The pairing is visible across the U.S., as the region housing them rises in the east around 6:45 P.M. local time.

Western Africa and much of the U.S. and Canada will see the Moon either pass fully or extremely close to Regulus in an event called an occultation (or a grazing occultation, in the latter case). The timing and visibility of the event will depend heavily on your location. In the U.S., the occultation will occur from about 8:40 P.M. EST to 10:05 P.M. EST. You can find a map of regions that will see the occultation and more details about the event – including the view from your location – at In-The-Sky.org.

Regulus is Leo’s alpha star, shining at magnitude 1.4. It sits very close to the ecliptic, the path the planets and the Moon follow in our sky, which is why it is frequently occulted. It lies roughly 79 light-years away and is a hot, B-type star.

Sunrise: 7:07 A.M.
Sunset: 5:21 P.M.
Moonrise: 6:27 P.M.
Moonset: 7:43 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (98%)

Uranus comes to a standstill just south of the Pleiades in Taurus on February 3. Credit: Alison Klesman (via TheSkyX)

Tuesday, February 3
Uranus stands stationary at midnight EST. Located in the constellation Taurus, the ice giant is visible after sunset and sets around 2 A.M. local time.

Shining at magnitude 5.7, Uranus generally requires binoculars or a telescope to spot. Around 9 P.M. local time, Uranus is still 50° high, located in the west and hanging below the readily visible Pleiades open cluster (M45). From this cluster, drop your optics about 5° south-southwest and look for a line of two stars: 13 and 14 Tauri, shining at magnitudes 5.7 and 6.1, respectively. The two stars sit in an east-west line, with 13 Tau on the western end. Uranus is located just 0.8° southwest of 13 Tau. Its disk is slightly larger than Neptune’s, appearing 4″ across, which may be apparent in your eyepiece. Uranus typically shows off a grayish color and won’t look quite the same as any nearby background, pinpoint stars.

Uranus has been moving retrograde, or westward, against the background sky. After today’s standstill, it will begin tracking eastward, or prograde.

Sunrise: 7:06 A.M.
Sunset: 5:22 P.M.
Moonrise: 7:37 P.M.
Moonset: 8:08 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (94%)

Wednesday, February 4
Io and its shadow transit Jupiter this evening, beginning shortly after 10 P.M. EST.

By the time the transit starts, the planet is above the horizon for the entire U.S. In the Midwest, it is high in the south, hanging to the lower right of the stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini the Twins. The gas giant shines at magnitude–2.6, far brighter than either of these stars, dominating the middle of the constellation.

Through a telescope, you’ll see that prior to the transit, Ganymede is alone to Jupiter’s west. On the eastern side of the planet, Io is closest, followed by Europa and then Callisto. Io reaches Jupiter’s southeastern limb at 10:20 P.M. EST and begins to move across the face of the planet. Its shadow appears 35 minutes later, following the moon across as both move from east to west.

Io slips off the disk shortly before 12:40 A.M. EST (now the 5th in the Eastern time zone only), joining Ganymede on the planet’s western side. The shadow continues alone after that, disappearing around 1:15 A.M. EST (now the 5th in the eastern half of the U.S.).

Sunrise: 7:05 A.M.
Sunset: 5:23 P.M.
Moonrise: 8:43 P.M.
Moonset: 8:31 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (88%)

Thursday, February 5
With the waning Moon rising later and later, there’s a dark window between sunset and moonrise to get in some deep-sky observing. Tonight we’re seeking out M106, a great galaxy to observe with your telescope, particularly if you can bump up the aperture. Larger scopes will show more detail, but this target is no slouch even in small or medium scopes under dark skies.

Shining at magnitude 8.4, you’ll find M106 in the north in the constellation Canes Venatici. Early this evening, it lies far to the right of the North Star and to the lower right of the cup of the Big Dipper. To reach the galaxy, just move your scope 5.5° east of magnitude 3.7 Chi (χ) Ursae Majoris, or start at brighter magnitude 2.4 Phecda (Gamma [γ] UMa) and move 7.5° southeast.

Measuring some 20′ by 8′, M106 is a lovely spiral galaxy tilted slightly to our line of sight, much like the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). Like M31, it has a bright core and fainter spiral arms, and may look like a glowing, oval-shaped fuzz in smaller scopes. M106 also has prominent dust lanes and a pronounced northern arm that stands out far better than its southern one.

Sunrise: 7:04 A.M.
Sunset: 5:24 P.M.
Moonrise: 9:48 P.M.
Moonset: 8:53 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (81%)

Friday, February 6
M44 is famously known as the Beehive Cluster in Cancer, but the Crab has a second stellar offering that is often overlooked: M67. Located southeast of M44, this 6th-magnitude group of stars is a similarly great target for beginners with small scopes.

After you’ve enjoyed M44 in central Cancer, it’s just an 8.3° slide south-southeast of M44 to land on M67. (Or, you can move 1.7° due west of 4th-magnitude Alpha Cancri.) At some 3.2 billion years old, M67 is more ancient than many open clusters. It has some 200 white dwarfs, the cooling remnants of Sun-like stars.

M67 covers nearly the same area as the Full Moon on the sky, and at least two dozen of its stars are visible in small scopes. Larger scopes will bring out even more stars, so observers with bigger instruments shouldn’t skip this one!

Sunrise: 7:03 A.M.
Sunset: 5:26 P.M.
Moonrise: 10:51 P.M.
Moonset: 9:14 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (72%)

The post The Sky This Week from January 30 to February 6: February starts with a Full Moon appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.