For the first half of this year, the sky puts on quite a show
for us. Some of the most beautiful planets in the heavens
– Venus, Saturn and Jupiter – shine for us to admire and try to
understand their glorious wonders.
As for Venus, this has to be one of the most interesting times
for more than 100 years. The planet will be at its highest and
brightest in the first half of spring, and she already has a very
good start in February.
For the first half of this year, the sky puts on quite a show for us. Some of the most beautiful planets in the heavens – Venus, Saturn and Jupiter – shine for us to admire and try to understand their glorious wonders.
As for Venus, this has to be one of the most interesting times for more than 100 years. The planet will be at its highest and brightest in the first half of spring, and she already has a very good start in February.
With a bright glow that shines three times brighter than the red beacon of Mars late last summer, Venus goes through phases just like our own moon. In February, Venus’ disk grows while its phase winds down from three-quarters to almost a half phase. As with any other object in the sky, the very best time to view Venus through the telescope is when it is its highest in the sky. With Venus, it is also best to view when the sky is still fairly light, just as the sun sets. This will tend to stop the bright glare of contrast with the dark background sky.
Take a look Feb. 23, when the slight crescent moon lies close by to our sister planet. Make sure you use your binoculars on this pair to see the Earth reflecting the sun’s light back toward the moon and filling in the rest of the moon’s dark side with a slight glow. There will be more similar conjunctions between the moon and other planets taking place each month until summer.
But for Venus, the best is yet to come. And if you are fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time, you will witness something that hasn’t happened in some 122 years. Well, the right place would be out of our area, unfortunately. Actually, it’s on the other side of Earth. The right time would be June 8. And what is this special event? Something that doesn’t sound like much to the layman, but quite exciting to astronomers around the world. And that would be Venus passing across the face of the sun for about six hours, a historically important event last seen in 1882.
If Venus orbited in the same plane as the Earth, we would see it pass across the sun every 584 days. But in its real orbit, inclined at 3.4 degrees, Venus transits happen 13 or 14 times per thousand years, each time Venus crosses our orbital plane and Earth is in line to witness it.
Saturn is very high in the southeast as darkness falls. Now is a good time for the experienced observer with medium-size or large amateur telescopes to look at the rings for the fine dark lines of gaps that separate the main rings. After this year, it will be a long time before we get a good chance to see them with this amount of clarity.
Saturn was the outermost of the known planets, from ancient times until the discovery of Uranus in 1781, and still remains one of the most loved and observed objects in the sky. In everything except its superb rings, Saturn ranks second to Jupiter: 0.8 times as wide, 0.5 times as dense and 0.3 times as massive. For a while, it had more known satellites, but in 2002 Jupiter overtook it in that respect too. It is 1.8 times more distant form the sun, thus appears on average 0.4 times as wide and 2 magnitudes fainter. Traveling 0.7 times as fast, it takes 2.5 times as long, or nearly 30 years, to complete an orbit. Now there are some good numbers for you to observe and ponder.
Jupiter, known as the giant planet, with nearly three times the mass of all the others put together, takes nearly 12 Earth years to go around the sun. It is the night’s dominant sight in the first four months of the year, outshined only by Venus down close to the sunset, with Saturn and Mars looking more like bright stars.
Jupiter rises around 8:30 p.m. at the beginning of February and by the end of the month is coming up just minutes after the sun sets. While the best you can see on Venus are featureless clouds, with Jupiter the dark belts can be seen even in small telescopes. And of course the ever-changing moons of Jupiter are always exciting to follow. Be sure to take a look at them Feb. 15 and Feb. 22 for a close grouping of Io, Europa and Callisto. You will be able to see them with a good pair of binoculars. Also on Feb. 28, when Jupiter passes only 5 arc seconds north of the fifth magnitude star Chi Leonis in the constellation Leo, it will look like Jupiter has an extra moon.
You know, much of the information I bring to you in my articles may sometimes seem quite insignificant. But often it is the little known happenings that occur in the night sky that get an amateur astronomer all excited. Just knowing they are going to happen is one thing, but to actually go out there in the dead of night and find it in your binoculars or telescope is another and something that is hard to explain, especially if you haven’t witnessed it for yourself. I enjoy it immensely and always have that feeling that I want everyone else to enjoy as well. Clear skies.
February Sky Watch
Feb. 3 – Moon passes 4.5 degrees north of Saturn.
Feb. 6 – Full moon, known as Snow, Hunger or Wolf Moon.
Feb. 8 – Moon passes 3 degrees north of Jupiter.
Feb. 13 – Last quarter moon.
Feb. 13 – Friday the 13th. In South America, the unlucky day is Tuesday, in Italy the unlucky number is 17. In Iran, women stay outdoors on the 13th day of the year to avoid bad luck.
Feb. 15 – Mercury passes 2 degrees south of Neptune.
Feb. 15 – Jupiter’s moons, Io, Europa and Callisto, form compact grouping at 8 p.m.
Feb. 16 – Moon is closest to Earth (perigee – 228, 865 miles.)
Feb. 18 – Moon passes 5 degrees south of Neptune.
Feb. 20 – New moon.
Feb. 22 – Second grouping of Io, Europa and Callisto at 11 p.m.
Feb. 22 – Muslim New Year, first day of the year 1425 A.H.
Feb. 23 – Moon passes 3 degrees south of Venus.
Feb. 25 – Moon passes 0.9 degrees south of Mars.
Feb. 26 – Ash Wednesday. Forty days of Lent. Sundays, being holy anyway, are not counted. They are called the Sundays “in” not “of” Lent.
Feb. 26 – Moon is 0.84 degrees south of Mars.
Feb. 27 – First quarter moon.
Feb. 28 – Moon is farthest from Earth (apogee – 251, 195 miles).
Feb. 28 – Star Leonis lies 5 arc seconds south of Jupiter.
Feb. 29 – Leap Day. Added to February, so this year is 366 days long, thus to average the calendar years to 365.2425.
