Tuesday, February 14
Venus sidles as much as Neptune within the night twilight because the planets put together for tomorrow’s conjunction. An hour after sundown, the pair is 13.5° excessive within the west, with Venus not possible to overlook at magnitude –3.9. Look with binoculars to seek out faraway Neptune, magnitude 7.8, about 33′ northeast of Venus’ vibrant gibbous disk. When you can’t spot the ice giant simply but, wait slightly longer for the sky to develop darker. Inside the subsequent 24 hours, Venus will first cross due south of Neptune, then seem northeast of the distant planet by night. We’ll return tomorrow for one more look.
As soon as the sky grows slightly darker nonetheless, have fun Valentine’s Day with a view of the beautiful pink Coronary heart Nebula in Cassiopeia. The constellation sits to the higher left of the Little Dipper within the north this night. The Coronary heart Nebula, additionally cataloged as IC 1805, is a magnitude 6.5 emission nebula slightly below 5° east-southeast of magnitude 3.4 Epsilon (ε) Cassiopeiae. It’s greatest seen with a bigger (8-inch or extra) telescope, although you should use low or excessive magnification to convey out totally different points of its construction. A nebula filter will additional improve the view. Look notably for NGC 896, a vibrant knot of glowing fuel and dust that sits southwest of the Coronary heart correct and is slightly simpler to see than the bigger, fainter nebula. You too can discover NGC 1027, a Seventh-magnitude star cluster, simply over 1° east of the Coronary heart.
Dawn: 6:54 A.M.
Sundown: 5:35 P.M.
Moonrise: 1:53 A.M.
Moonset: 11:19 A.M.
Moon Part: Waning crescent (38%)
Wednesday, February 15
Venus passes 0.01° south of Neptune at 7 A.M. EST this morning. Let’s return to the pair within the night sky to see how the view has modified since yesterday.
An hour after sundown, Venus is now some 35′ northeast of Neptune as the previous travels shortly alongside the ecliptic. Each planets will nonetheless match into the identical telescopic or binocular subject of view, with tiny, 2″-wide Neptune coming out because the sky grows darker. The ice giant will appear to be a small, spherical, “flat” star coloured bluish-gray. In the meantime, Venus’ vibrant disk is almost 90 p.c lit and spans 12″, six instances as vast as Neptune. Venus is way smaller than Neptune in actuality, in fact, however its a lot nearer proximity makes it seem considerably bigger in our sky.
Tonight, Venus sits proper on the border between Pisces and Aquarius; the planet can have moved firmly into Pisces by tomorrow. Neptune is following at a extra sedate tempo and gained’t make the border crossing into Pisces till March 4.
Dawn: 6:53 A.M.
Sundown: 5:36 P.M.
Moonrise: 3:05 A.M.
Moonset: 12:07 P.M.
Moon Part: Waning crescent (28%)
Thursday, February 16
Saturn is in conjunction with the Solar at 12 P.M. EST, rendering it invisible for the remainder of February. Nonetheless, the ringed planet will make its reappearance within the morning sky subsequent month.
When you’ve been observing Venus and Neptune for the previous two nights, you’re already conversant in the area of sky we’ll be visiting tonight. Once more, look west after sundown and also you’ll see the big determine of Cetus the Whale stretching above the horizon. This time, we’re focusing east (to the higher proper) of the planets to zero in on a wonderful goal for small scopes: the galaxy M77.
Spanning about 7′ by 6′, this barely elongated spiral glows at ninth magnitude. You will discover M77 by sliding a mere 0.9° east of 4th-magnitude Delta (δ) Ceti. M77 is a superb instance of an energetic galaxy, whose central supermassive black hole is greedily gobbling up materials. Nonetheless, the black hole’s accretion disk is just not so vibrant that it outshines the galaxy, as occurs with quasars. As a substitute, M77 is classed as a Seyfert galaxy, whose middle exhibits indications of a feeding black hole with out overpowering the sunshine from its host. The galaxy’s middle is visually vibrant largely due to the abundance of stars there, with fainter spiral arms seen by means of bigger scopes.
Dawn: 6:52 A.M.
Sundown: 5:37 P.M.
Moonrise: 4:15 A.M.
Moonset: 1:08 P.M.
Moon Part: Waning crescent (18%)
Friday, February 17
Early this morning, a fragile crescent Moon sits close to the Teapot asterism in Sagittarius. Look southeast about an hour earlier than dawn to seek out Earth’s pure satellite some 4° above the horizon, hanging to the decrease left (east) of the Teapot’s deal with. Simply off the tip of the Teapot’s spout, marked by Gamma (γ) Sagittarii, is the Milky Way’s galactic middle and its supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*.
Look farther proper of that spout and also you’ll run proper into the big, winding determine of Scorpius, sitting on his tail simply above the horizon. Most evident will probably be his vibrant pink coronary heart, magnitude 1.1 Antares, a glowing red giant star within the later phases of its life. Earlier than twilight really begins to interrupt, you possibly can take pleasure in a number of star clusters inside the Scorpion, notably by sweeping by means of the constellation with binoculars. The open clusters M6 and M7 lie shut collectively close to Shaula within the tail, whereas M4 and M80 are each globulars that sit up close to Antares and the Scorpion’s head.
Dawn: 6:50 A.M.
Sundown: 5:38 P.M.
Moonrise: 5:16 A.M.
Moonset: 2:20 P.M.
Moon Part: Waning crescent (10%)
