SUNSET: 
32FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17
■ Jupiter and Venus are closing in on each other in the western evening twilight, as shown in the two scenes below.
They're on their way to an eye-grabbing conjunction on March 1st. That evening they'll be ½° apart and lined up horizontally (seen from the mid-latitudes of North America). Mark your calendar!
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18
■ By 9 p.m. or so, the Big Dipper stands on its handle well up in the northeast. In the northwest, Cassiopeia also stands on end (its brighter end) at about the same height. Between them is Polaris.
■ A project before moonlight returns later this week: Certain deep-sky objects hold special surprises within or near them. Get out your telescope and sky atlas for a go at Bob King's eight Hidden Gems in Common Deep-Sky Objects now in evening view.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19
■ Have you ever seen Canopus, the second-brightest star after Sirius? Canopus lies almost due south of Sirius, by 36°. That's far enough south that it never appears above your horizon unless you're below latitude 37° N (southern Virginia, southern Missouri, central California). And there, you'll need a very flat south horizon. Canopus crosses the south point on the horizon just 21 minutes before Sirius does.
When to look? You'll know Canopus is due south when Beta Canis Majoris — Murzim the Announcer, the star about three finger-widths to the right of Sirius — is at its highest due south over your landscape. That's about 8 p.m. now, depending on how far east or west you are in your time zone. Drop straight down from Murzim then.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20
■ Spot the big, bright, equilateral Winter Triangle in the south-southeast. Sirius is its brightest and lowest star. Betelgeuse is above Sirius by about two fists at arm's length. Left of them shines Procyon.
■ The Winter Triangle's inside is mostly filled by the front half of Monoceros, the dim Unicorn. It trots across the sky right behind Orion. With the Moon still out of the evening sky, now's a fine time to trace out the Unicorn's big, dim stick figure. Use the constellation chart in the center of the February or March Sky & Telescope.
Many binocular starwatchers know about Monoceros's distinctive star cluster NGC 2244, a boxy little rectangular pattern in the center of the vastly dimmer Rosette Nebula. It's right about where the Unicorn's eye might be in his triangular head. The brightest stars of the box pattern are 6th and 7th magnitude. Find them 10° to the celestial east-southeast of Betelgeuse. The elongated rectangle currently stands upright.
If you've got big binoculars or a small telescope, try next for the larger but fainter Christmas Tree Cluster, NGC 2264, at 15 Monocerotis: the 5th-magnitude star marking the tip of the Unicorn's horn above the back of his head. The stars outlining the Christmas Tree are only 7th and 8th magnitude. The tree currently hangs downward from its base, marked by 15 Mon. For more see Matt Wedel's Binocular Highlight column and map in the February 2022 issue of Sky & Telescope, page 43.
■ New Moon (exact at 2:06 a.m. EST on this date).
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21
■ As soon as you first see Venus through the fading twilight this evening, look below it for the very thin waxing crescent Moon, just a day and a half old, as shown below.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22
■ Now the crescent Moon hangs hardly more than 1° to the right of Jupiter over Venus, as shown above. Think photo opportunity! Get some nice scenery silhouetted in the foreground, zoom in, and prop your phone or camera on something solid so it can take time exposures.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23
■ Sirius blazes high in the south on the meridian by about 8 or 9 p.m. now. Using binoculars or a scope at low power, examine the spot 4° south of Sirius (directly below it when on the meridian). Four degrees is somewhat less than the width of a typical binocular's or finderscope's field of view.
Can you see a little patch of speckly gray haze? That's the open star cluster M41, about 2,200 light-years away. Its total magnitude adds up to 5.0.
Sirius, by comparison, is only 8.6 light-years away — and shines some 400 times brighter.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24
■ After dinnertime at this time of year, five carnivore constellations are rising upright in a row from the northeast to south, as if out of hibernation. They're all seen in profile with their noses pointed up and their feet (if any) to the right. These are Ursa Major the Big Bear in the northeast (with the Big Dipper as its brightest part), Leo the Lion in the east, dim Hydra the Sea Serpent in the southeast, Canis Minor the Little Dog higher in the south-southeast, and bright Canis Major the Big Dog in the south.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25
■ It's not spring for another 3½ weeks, but the Spring Star Arcturus seems eager to thrust itself into view. It rises above the east-northeast horizon around 9 or 10 p.m. now depending on your location.
To see where to watch for it to rise, find the Big Dipper as soon as the stars come out; it's high in the northeast. Follow the curve of its handle down and around to the lower right by a little more than a Dipper-length. That's the spot on the horizon to watch.
Atmospheric extinction keeps it dim when it rises. But by an hour later, Arcturus dominates the low eastern sky.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26
■ First-quarter Moon (exactly first quarter at 3:06 a.m. tonight EST). This evening the Moon shines between Aldebaran and the Pleiades, as shown below. Mars is off to the Moon's left.
This Week's Planet Roundup
Mercury is hidden deep in the sunrise.
Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, shine boldly in the west-southwest at dusk. Venus is the lower and brighter one; they're magnitudes –3.9 and –2.1, respectively.
They're drawing closer together every day. On Friday the 17th they're 12° apart and closing fast; a week later on the 24th they're only 5° apart. They're on their way to a close conjunction on March 1st, when they'll pass just half a degree apart.
Telescopically Venus is a shimmering little gibbous ball, 12 arcseconds in diameter and 87% sunlit. Jupiter is 34 arcseconds wide. That's small for Jupiter; it's nearly on the other side of the solar system from us. Jupiter displays a strikingly dimmer surface brightness in a telescope. That's because it's nearly 7 times farther from the illuminating Sun than Venus is.
Use binoculars to check in on the pinpoint moons of Jupiter, very close to its globe.
Mars, in Taurus, shines very high toward the south right after dusk, almost overhead. It moves lower toward the west as evening grows late. Mars continues to fade, from magnitude +0.2 to +0.3 this week, and it's now only 9 arcseconds wide. That's probably too small to show visual details in most telescopes most nights, aside from its gibbous shape (90% sunlit, see below) and maybe signs of the North Polar Cap.
Spot Aldebaran, magnitude +0.8, below Mars in early evening (by 10°). Later in the evening, Aldebaran is lower left of Mars.
Saturn is out of sight in conjunction with the Sun.
Uranus, magnitude 5.8 in southern Aries, is still fairly high in the southwest right after dark. It displays a tiny, very slightly blue-greenish gray disk 3.6 arcseconds wide. It a telescope at high power it's definitely non-stellar. See the Uranus finder charts in the November Sky & Telescope, page 49.
Neptune is out of sight in the afterglow of sunset.
All descriptions that relate to your horizon — including the words up, down, right, and left — are written for the world's mid-northern latitudes. Descriptions and graphics that also depend on longitude (mainly Moon positions) are for North America.
Eastern Standard Time (EST) is Universal Time minus 5 hours. Universal Time is also called UT, UTC, GMT or Z time.
Want to become a better astronomer? Learn your way around the constellations. They're the key to locating everything fainter and deeper to hunt with binoculars or a telescope.
This is an outdoor nature hobby. For a more detailed constellation guide covering the whole evening sky, use the big monthly map in the center of each issue of Sky & Telescope, the essential magazine of astronomy.
Once you get a telescope, to put it to good use you'll need a much more detailed, large-scale sky atlas (set of charts). The basic standard is the Pocket Sky Atlas (in either the original or Jumbo Edition), which shows all stars to magnitude 7.6.
Next up is the larger and deeper Sky Atlas 2000.0, plotting stars to magnitude 8.5; nearly three times as many. The next up, once you know your way around, are the even larger Interstellarum atlas (stars to magnitude 9.5) or Uranometria 2000.0 (stars to magnitude 9.75). And be sure to read How to Use a Star Chart with a Telescope. It applies just as much to charts on your phone or tablet as to charts on paper.
You'll also want a good deep-sky guidebook. A beloved old classic is the three-volume Burnham's Celestial Handbook. An impressive more modern one is the big Night Sky Observer's Guide set (2+ volumes) by Kepple and Sanner.
Can a computerized telescope replace charts? Not for beginners, I don't think, and not on mounts and tripods that are less than top-quality mechanically. And as Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer say in their Backyard Astronomer's Guide, "A full appreciation of the universe cannot come without developing the skills to find things in the sky and understanding how the sky works. This knowledge comes only by spending time under the stars with star maps in hand."
Audio sky tour. Out under the evening sky with your
earbuds in place, listen to Kelly Beatty's monthly
podcast tour of the heavens above. It's free.
"The dangers of not thinking clearly are much greater now than ever before. It's not that there's something new in our way of thinking, it's that credulous and confused thinking can be much more lethal in ways it was never before."
— Carl Sagan, 1996
"Facts are stubborn things."
— John Adams, 1770
Comments
misha17
February 17, 2023 at 3:25 pm
Jumping ahead to next weekend, the Sun will have the same declination on Feb 27th as it will during the Oct 14th solar eclipse, 8 degrees South.
Because the sun's motion varies during the year, it will have the same positions on Feb 27th 24 minutes earlier than it will on Oct 14th.
In other words, if mid-eclipse happens at 12 Noon on Oct 14th, the Sun will be at the same location at 12:24pm on Feb 27th.
You can look up the local times for the eclipse in your area, then go out next weekend 24 minutes before those times to see where the sun will be.
Use that to plan "photo ops" for scenery backdrops during the eclipse (as well as places to avoid because objects will be in the way).
You must be logged in to post a comment.
mary beth
February 17, 2023 at 4:21 pm
Thank you that is excellent information for photography purposes and staging in general. I love thinking about the position of the sun. It’s just fascinating. I think you will enjoy this quote:
“A year indoors is a journey along a paper calendar; a year in outer nature is the accomplishment of a tremendous ritual. To share in it, one must have a knowledge of the pilgrimages of the sun, and something of that natural sense of him and felling for him which made even the most primitive people mark the summer limits of his advance and the last December ebb of his decline.”
Henry Beston, The Outermost House 1928
You must be logged in to post a comment.
TomR
February 19, 2023 at 12:56 pm
Thank you for sharing this quote! It seems, that many people have lost their connection to nature and to the cosmos.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
mary beth
February 20, 2023 at 11:09 pm
Sadly they are missing so much beauty. Tonight I enjoyed Jupiter and Venus and I’m looking forward to viewing every night in the next couple of weeks
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Anthony Barreiro
February 17, 2023 at 6:14 pm
Thank you Misha. This is very helpful. But something doesn't make sense to me:
"Because the sun's motion varies during the year, it will have the same positions on Feb 27th 24 minutes earlier than it will on Oct 14th.
In other words, if mid-eclipse happens at 12 Noon on Oct 14th, the Sun will be at the same location at 12:24pm on Feb 27th."
I think you meant to say that the Sun will have the same position in the sky on February 27 24 minutes *later* than on October 14. And I think the correct number is 27 minutes. I checked the Nautical Almanac. On February 27, Local Apparent Noon at the Greenwich meridian will be at 12:13 pm. On October 14, Greenwich LAN will be at 11:46 am. So wherever you are, LAN occurs 27 minutes later on February 27 than on October 14.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
misha17
February 18, 2023 at 1:15 pm
Anthony,
You can't believe how much I edited my remarks, before I finally posted them, trying to get the most accurate and concise wording, lol. Thanks for your revision; it's clearer than mine (IMHO).
As for the 24-/27-minutes, I used the sunrise/sunset times for my location using an online "almanac", and figured Noon as the midpoint between them.
My calculations were quick and dirty since I wanted to get the info out as soon as possible, and this week's Sky At A Glance was posted later than usual.
The 3 minute discrepancy shouldn't be too significant, unless you wanted to try to photograph an eclipse phaseoc right to an object - for instance, the eclipsed sun rising or setting over a lake, specific landmark, etc.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Anthony Barreiro
February 19, 2023 at 6:37 pm
Hi Misha. I've made similar simple mistakes myself, many times. Thanks again for the heads up!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Rfeldman
February 19, 2023 at 11:23 pm
On the subject of October 14th photo ops, that is the penultimate day of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, and the eclipse center line passes about a mile from Balloon Fiesta Park. Although most balloons are usually down by the partial eclipse start time of 9:13 AM (assuming that I'm doing the UT conversion correctly), I suspect that, weather permitting, many pilots will try to time their flights for the eclipse.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
misha17
February 22, 2023 at 11:07 pm
That is very cool! I hope to see lots of photographs of the eclipse and balloonists.
Of course the balloonists will all be jostling for position so that another balloon doesn't block their view of the eclipse (lol)
You must be logged in to post a comment.
cyrtonyx
February 23, 2023 at 3:27 pm
Living about 20 miles east of Albuquerque, I should be in the center of "totality". Cannot get too revved up for an annular eclipse, though. Saw the Aug 2017 eclipse in totality in Nebraska. There was an annular one here many years ago right at sunset--due to the low angle of the sun on the horizon, I could look directly at that eclipse. Anyway, I'll be on Catalina Island that date and miss this eclipse entirely.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
misha17
February 23, 2023 at 5:29 pm
Interesting that you should mention Catalina Island ...
100 years ago in September 1923, there was a total solar eclipse where the path of totality grazed the Pacific Coast before curving eastward near San Diego and then passed through Northern Mexico.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_September_10,_1923
The path of totality went over Palo Alto; it missed Los Angeles but crossed over Catalina Island.
https://images.app.goo.gl/23wgo69P1XCXRFrF9
Because of its proximity to Pasadena's California Institute of Technology, and because this eclipse offered a chance to once again photograph stars near the Sun to test relativity, and in fairly comfortable settings, (the first attempts were done off the West coast of Africa and in Brazil during the 1919 eclipse), Catalina was the destination for some expeditions.
Sadly, the eclipse was clouded out along most if the West Coast, although a journalist from San Diego won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the event.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
misha17
February 23, 2023 at 5:35 pm
crytonix:
If you have the time, resources, energy, and curiosity when you are on Catalina, maybe hike the back country and see if the piers for the observing telescopes are still in place?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
cyrtonyx
February 26, 2023 at 12:19 pm
Only transportation we will have are rented bicycles---where on the island are the telescope piers?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Rfeldman
February 28, 2023 at 2:20 pm
The previous annular eclipse that crossed NM was May 20, 2012. Clouds appeared low in the west during the annular portion to block the view in Santa Fe. The shadows through the leaves projected onto the front of our house during the partial phase were pretty cool, however.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Anthony Barreiro
February 17, 2023 at 5:56 pm
This is the first time in six weeks that Comet ZTF hasn't been mentioned in "This
Week's Sky at a Glance." It's fading fast, barely visible through binoculars. Farewell, charming dirty snowball.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
mary beth
February 20, 2023 at 11:10 pm
Good description lol. How have you been?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Martian-Bachelor
February 17, 2023 at 11:19 pm
February 17, 2023: There's been some previous mention of cross-quarter days, half way between an equinox and a solstice.
Today is the day when the sun is half way back N from its solstice declination to the equator.
I don't think there's a special name for the four such days during the year. It happened at 5:10 PM Mountain Standard Time, which would be 00:10 the 18th UT.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
mary beth
February 18, 2023 at 12:21 am
Thank you for sharing this. I would’ve thought it would’ve been closer to the beginning of February but then again, it seems like we gain more actual minutes of daylight as we get closer to the equinox. Is that why this event is closer to March 20?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
misha17
February 18, 2023 at 12:23 pm
Mary Beth:
1. The two are related. The ecliptic is like a sine curve relative to the celestial equator, "flat" near the solstice points and slanted near the equinox points.
As a result the Sun spends a few months within a few degrees of its solstice declination* and moves quickly during "equinox season" to get near to the other solstice declination, where it lingers for a few more months.
Since declination determines length of day, there is a quick change near the equinoxes.
* In the Northern Hemisphere, the Sun is at or above 17 degrees North declination from about early May to early August, and about 17 degrees South declination from early November to early February.
That leaves about only 3 months near the March equinox (mid-February to mid-May) to go from 17 degrees South to 17 degrees North declination.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
misha17
February 18, 2023 at 12:34 pm
2. You might remember my weekly posts from last Summer as I noted the changes in sunset times, staying near 8pm (Daylight Time, 7pm Standard) from early July through mid August, then starting to occur noticeably earlier each day.
Around the September Equinox 45 days later, Sunset occurred around 7pm DST (6pm Standard).
And that is for Los Angeles; for higher latitudes the sunset times thru August are much later, but still drop to 7pm DST/6pm Standard around the September Equinox.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
misha17
February 18, 2023 at 12:42 pm
3. There are several posts online from folks who have taken composite photos of the Sun's position in the sky, taken at the same time of day over the course of a year.
This article includes an edited photo, near the bottom of the page, with the dates next to each position of the Sun:
https://www.universetoday.com/126512/solar-analemma-the-2015-sun-in-one-picture/
You must be logged in to post a comment.
mary beth
February 19, 2023 at 9:37 pm
Many thanks for all of this excellent information and I love the link to the Italian analemma! That has led me to do further research and I do have a question. It appears that people are documenting the sun based on clock time not solar noon - is this correct and how come it is done by clock time not actual solar noon?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
misha17
February 22, 2023 at 11:05 pm
Mary Beth:
If people took all the photos at solar noon, the sun would always be due south at the time of the photo, so you would just have an up-and-down straight line with the sun's images at different locations along the line during the year.
By using clock time, you can see that sometimes solar noon occurs earlier than 12 Noon clock time, and sometimes it occurs later, tracing out the lopsided figure-8 pattern in the photos.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
mary beth
February 23, 2023 at 12:47 am
Hi Misha17, thank you for clarifying that. I would like to see that as well. It would be nice to see exact changes in declination. In my mind, that’s more of an apples to apples comparison, although I do appreciate the reasoning and interest of the analemma. Be also interesting to get pictures of the sunset every day to see how exactly where the sun sets on the horizon. It would have to be panoramic. I believe there’s about 54°difference between summer and winter.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
misha17
February 23, 2023 at 4:52 pm
Google is your friend ...
https://www.google.com/search?q=photos+sunrise+OR+sunset+same+location+a+year&sxsrf=AJOqlzWfCUilIrslDU4oyqXj87PCJrEYOw%3A1677189038285&ei=rt_3Y_uPEf-gkPIPgMay2AQ&oq=photos+sunrise+OR+sunset+same+location+a+year&gs_lcp=ChNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwEAMyBQgAEKIEMgUIABCiBDIFCAAQogQyBQgAEKIEOgoIABBHENYEELADOgcIIxCwAhAnOgoIIRCgARDDBBAKOggIIRCgARDDBEoECEEYAFDtDVixIWCBWWgEcAB4AIABhwGIAfYEkgEDMS40mAEAoAEByAEIwAEB&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp
You must be logged in to post a comment.
misha17
February 23, 2023 at 5:07 pm
... also, a halo has a radius of 22 degrees, which closely matches the +/- 23-dgrees range of solar declination. A halo usually has 2 bright spots 180 degrees apart called "Sun Dogs".
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog )
They appear to the left and right of the Sun, and during the early morning or late afternoon the "dogs" are aligned North and South of the Sun.
If you see a halo near sunset (or sunrise) on days around the equinoxes, the "dogs" will lie close the sunset (or sunrise) points for the solstices.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
mary beth
February 24, 2023 at 10:23 am
Thank you! Just what I was looking for. I really like the way some images are a compilation of twelve months, vertically stacked for easy comparison. I saved several.
I did not know that about the sun dogs being near solstice azimuths at equinox….very interesting, they are quite further apart than I thought.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Martian-Bachelor
February 19, 2023 at 12:42 am
The cross-quarter day is Feb 3rd -- +/- a day depending on leap years.
Misha17 is correct about how the sun's declination (distance from the celestial equator) varies like a sine wave and how we're now on the steeper part of the curve's slope. For about the next two months.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
mary beth
February 19, 2023 at 9:48 pm
Thank you so much, I like marking days like this, I love getting the feel of the earth’s trip around the sun. I think I’ll coin February 17 and onward The Sunsprint Days!
Will the speeds be exact in autumn? Say August 5+/- to September equinox?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Kevan Hubbard
February 21, 2023 at 2:42 pm
We've had loads of clear nights here in north east England and I have been watching Jupiter and Venus creep together towards their appluse (good word and not to be confused with applause!).I had a hospital appointment yesterday and nipped in an Indian restaurant to get a really hot phale curry to take home afterwards and it was thick clouds when I went but but had cleared when I came out and Jupiter and Venus were blazing away in the west.Regarding Canopus.I was brought up in South Africa so it's a star I know well although I can't see it now and the last time I saw it was from a hotel roof in Ruwi,sort of a suburb of Muscat but I think technically a separate city, Oman in 2019.I believe that it was in an October.Northern hemisphere countries I've seen it, Canopus, from are; Bermuda, Guatemala, Oman, El Salvador, Belize and Singapore.I think that it'd be very hard to see from anywhere in Europe although it probably rises in southern Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain but it'd be really low.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
mary beth
February 22, 2023 at 8:42 pm
I must admit I am applauding the appulse right now! A beautiful waxing crescent moon at about 10% illumination, such a lovely addition to an already gorgeous scene!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
misha17
February 22, 2023 at 11:22 pm
"WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22
■ Now the crescent Moon hangs hardly more than 1° to the right of Jupiter over Venus, as shown above. "
The moon actually occults Jupiter as seen from Antarctica.
This conjuction is a start of a short series of occultations of Jupiter, but because they all occur so close to the New Moon, when the Moon is near the Sun, most of the upcoming occultations will occur during daylight hours along the occultation paths, except for the very beginning or endings.
All the occulations paths are viewable here:
http://www.lunar-occultations.com/iota/planets/jupiter.png
The tiny blue segments along the eastern edge of the paths for February and March are the areas where the occultations occur during or after evening twilight, and the tiny blue segment along the western edge of the path for May is the area where the occultation occurs before or during morning twilight; the rest of the paths outlined in red occur during daytime.
The April 19th occultation will be very special; it occurs entirely during daylight or strong twilight and is not visible at all, but it occurs just a day before the (barely) total solar eclipse on April 20th, so Jupiter will about 13 degrees to the west of the eclipsed Sun along the path of totality.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.