What's Up in the Night Sky

February 2014 - Vol. 18, No. 2

This Month's Night Sky - NOTE: The next paragraph describes the sky as it appears at 10 pm EST (11 pm EDT) near mid- month. The sky also looks this way at 11 pm EST (midnight EDT) during the beginning of the month and at 9 pm EST (10 pm EDT) by month's end.

Sirius (Canis Major), the brightest star in the night sky, shines brilliantly in the South. It forms the bottom leg of the Winter Triangle. The triangle's upper stars are reddish Betelguese (Orion) to the right and whitish Procyon (Canis Minor) on the left. Capella (Auriga) appears directly overhead later in the evening and you might even glimpse Canopus (Carina) very low (below Sirius) in the South. Looking North you will find the "Big Dipper" (Ursa Major) with its handle still pointing towards the horizon. Cassiopeia's famous "W" asterism is high in the Northwest and Regulus (Leo) shines in the East. Don't forget to look for Castor and Pollux (Gemini "twins") above the Winter Triangle.

MERCURY appears in the morning sky later in the month. VENUS, rises in the early morning sky is after inferior conjunction on Jan 11. JUPITER, in the constellation of Gemini is still shining most of the night. MARS, in Virgo rises before midnight, moving into opposition in April, the disk is still growing and the north polar cap is visible. The red planet will be close to Spica, less than 5 degrees above the 1st magnitude star on the 3rd. SATURN rises just after midnight, the rings will be 22.6 degrees open.

Review how to determine Angular Measurement.

Calendar of Events

NOTE: For those observers not in the ET zone, convert the calendar times to your zone's time by subtracting one hour for CT, two for MT and three for PT. Don't forget to adjust for Daylight Savings Time when necessary by subtracting one hour from your planisphere's time. Dawn and dusk times must also be corrected. See your local newspaper, TV news, or cable TV's Weather Channel for sunrise and sunset times. Unfortunately some of these events may occur during daylight hours in your area.

DATE	EVENT
01	Mercury 4 deg S. of the Moon.
03	Mercury at perihelion.
11	Jupiter 5 deg N. of Moon.
12	The Moon is at apogee.
15	Venus at greatest illumination (-4.9).
16	Look W from a dark location, at about an hour after sunset, to view zodiacal light. ("Zodiacal light" is a vertical band of white light believed to be sunlight reflected from meteoriods found in the plane of the ecliptic, the apparent "path" of the Sun, Moon and Planets as they travel across our sky.) It will appear to be a very large, but very dim, pyramid of of white light, "leaning" to the left. May be seen for the next two weeks.
19	Spica (Alpha Virginis)1.6 deg S of the Moon.
20	Mars 3 deg N. of the moon.
21	Saturn .3 deg N of the Moon, an occulatation in New Zealand and Australia.
23	Neptune in conjunction with the Sun.
27	Moon at perigee. Mercury 3 deg S. of the Moon.
28	Venus .4 deg S. of the Moon , occultation from Africa, India, SE Asia. Look for Mercury and the old Moon rising just before sunrise. As always, be careful when observing toward the Sun.

Lunar Almanac for February 2014

Phases of the Moon	Phase and Date(s)	Best viewed before local midnight
	New Jan 30	Deep Space Objects
	1st. Qtr 6	Planets & Moon
	Full 14	Moon
	Last Qtr 22	Deep Space & Planets

Spotting the International Space Station

The International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, in an orbit that is inclined of 51.6 degrees to the Earth's equator. This means that it never be overhead if you live north or south of 51.6 degrees. Fortunately that still means that a whole lot of people will be able see the space station overhead where the atmosphere is the thinnest on one of its passes. But it can be hard for an observer to predict whether or not they will be able to see the station on a given day. That's why NASA sponsors a site to help us figure out when the station is visible. Use the NASA's ISS Spot the Station site. From here you can get information for any location in the database, no matter where you travel finding a station passage opportunity is easy. You can also sign up for alerts to be sent to your email when the station is passing over your home base.

Many amateurs have taken interesting pictures of the station showing the details of the station structure. Some of them show the station when the space shuttle was docked. By searching the internet, you can find some amazing images. An incredible amount of detail can be seen on such images including details of the solar panels and beyond the support structure to some of the modules.

If you do go to the Spot the Station site, and get information on station passages for your location, you can easily see the station as it passes over. This is especially true if the station is predicted to spend more than 2 minutes in the sky. In this case it will cross over a large piece of the sky and should be quite bright. Pay particulat attention to the compass direction that is given for the appearence and disappearence of the station. If you are not familiar with making astronomical observations, take the time to figure out what parts of the sky are visible from the site you plan to use to make your observations. Try to find a site that will enable you to see the station throughout the whole passage.

Also pay attention to how high above the horizon the station will be when it hits maximum height. The higher it is, the easier it will be to see that station. The station is also quite bright, brighter than the stars, even brighter than the planet Venus. But that doesn't mean that the station will reach its brightest when it makes its pass. It all depends on the angle between the ground you stand on and the position of the station and the Sun. It won't shine at a constant brightness, so you might want to make a note of how its brightness changes as it passes over.

Good luck and feel free to contact me if you need help making the observations of the space station.

--See You Under the Stars!
Astra for Astra's Almanac