Monday, February 14
This month, skywatchers are getting something special: a glimpse beyond the lunar south pole. You’re looking for Mount Clementine, officially known only as M5. It’s one of the easiest farside features to see and spends most of each lunar month in continuous sunlight.
Starting tonight and returning over the next several nights, pull out your telescope and aim it at the southern regions of our satellite. You’ll immediately notice the fantastic 3D look of the lunar limb. Because the Moon is sitting just above the Earth-Sun plane, called the ecliptic, we get a peek at features past the pole that we normally don’t get to see. You’ll observe rugged terrain that casts sharp black shadows; these pools of darkness stretch southward as lunar noon approaches.
Use our guide above to locate both Mount Clementine and a neighboring feature, M4. The craters Casatus, Moretus, and Newton should help you make sure you’re in the right spot. Watch from day to day as these mountains’ shadows move with the changing Sun angle. If the glare is too bright, bump up the magnification — this reduces the amount of the lunar surface you’re viewing and cuts down on its reflected light as well.
Sunrise: 6:54 A.M.
Sunset: 5:35 P.M.
Moonrise: 3:31 P.M.
Moonset: 6:05 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous (96%)
Tuesday, February 15
A few hours before sunrise, the Moon is setting in Cancer the Crab. Turn your gaze instead across the sky and look up to find the constellation Boötes high overhead in the south. This star figure is home to another of the sky’s brightest stars: magnitude –0.1 Arcturus, a red giant star in the later stages of its life. Does its glow appear orange or red to you, especially compared with its nearby neighbors?
Just over 10° northeast of Arcturus is magnitude 2.6 Izar (Epsilon [ϵ] Boötis). This target is a beautiful binary star some 200 light-years away, consisting of components colored orange and white. The stars are separated by about 3″ and typically require a telescope 3 inches or larger to resolve.
Not only is this pair stunning to look at, it also offers a glimpse at stellar evolution in action. Today, the older, orange-hued star is roughly 4 times the mass of the Sun, while the younger, whiter star is just 2 solar masses. But over time, that more massive star will blow off its outer layers and become a smaller, less massive white dwarf — and by then, the younger star will have swollen up to become an orangey red giant instead.
Sunrise: 6:53 A.M.
Sunset: 5:36 P.M.
Moonrise: 4:35 P.M.
Moonset: 6:43 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing gibbous (99%)
Wednesday, February 16
February’s Full Moon occurs today at 11:56 A.M. EST. This month’s Full Moon is called, perhaps appropriately for much of the U.S., the Snow Moon. Its bright light will wash out much of the sky overnight, as the Full Moon rises and sets opposite the Sun.
But all is not lost, even in a brighter sky. The planet Mercury reaches greatest western elongation from the Sun (26°) at 4 P.M. EST; it’s visible early this morning before sunrise, clearing the horizon around 5:30 A.M. local time. Mercury currently sits in Capricornus and is now magnitude 0.1, having brightened from magnitude 0.9 early in February. It won’t get much brighter in the coming weeks, though, reaching magnitude 0 by the 20th and –0.1 by the end of the month.
The innermost planet’s tiny disk spans 7″ through a telescope and appears 60 percent lit. You’ll find it to the lower left (east) of brighter Venus and Mars, still in Sagittarius and rising around 4:20 A.M. and 4:50 A.M. local time, respectively.
Sunrise: 6:51 A.M.
Sunset: 5:37 P.M.
Moonrise: 5:41 P.M.
Moonset: 7:15 A.M.
Moon Phase: Full
Thursday February 17
Dwarf planet 1 Ceres rules the asteroid belt, and all month it’s flying through Taurus the Bull. Tonight you’ll find the small world, which currently glows around magnitude 8.5, less than 4° southeast of the Pleiades (M45). You should be able to follow it even from the city if you’ve got a scope measuring just 3 inches or more.
Once you’ve spotted Ceres, don’t forget to turn toward the Pleiades to enjoy the view. Although this cluster is also called the Seven Sisters, there are hundreds of stars within it, nine of which crack magnitude 6. Tonight’s bright moonlight might affect how many stars you can easily see, particularly without any optical aid. Consider jotting down a quick sketch and returning when there is no Moon in the sky to see if the number of visible luminaries has changed. If you want to magnify the view, binoculars or that same low-power scope you used to spy Ceres are best. In fact, your ideal tool might be the finder scope on your telescope! That’s because the Pleiades covers roughly 110′ on the sky, although its brightest nine stars will all fit within a 1°-wide field of view.
Sunrise: 6:50 A.M.
Sunset: 5:39 P.M.
Moonrise: 6:47 P.M.
Moonset: 7:43 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (99%)
The Sky This Week: Bask in the Full Snow Moon
Source: Trending Update Article
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