Wednesday, February 10
A barely 2-percent-lit Moon passes 3° south of Saturn at 6 A.M. EST. Dedicated morning observers with a clear view of the east-southeastern horizon may be able to catch our satellite rising just 20 minutes or so before the Sun. At that time, Saturn is only 3° high. Also visible are Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury, but all are lower than Saturn and increasingly close to the Sun. As always, take care with your predawn observing and stop using binoculars or your telescope at least several minutes before sunrise.
The Moon passes 3° south of Venus later today at 3 P.M. EST.
Tonight, asteroids 18 Melpomene (magnitude 9.5) and 60 Echo (magnitude 10) — still traveling together through Cancer — pass on either side of the orange star FX Cancri (magnitude 6.7). Nearby is the open cluster M67, one of the oldest-known open clusters at a little more than 3 billion years old. With a visual magnitude of 6.1 and an apparent size of 30', M67 is an excellent target for binoculars or any size telescope.
Also close by in Cancer is M44, better known as the Beehive Cluster. This naked-eye object shines at magnitude 3.7 and spans about 1.5°; in reality, it stretches about 15 light-years from side to side and sits less than 600 light-years away. To the naked eye, M44 may look like a gauzy glow, but binoculars or a telescope will reveal its members: some 1,000 glittering young suns.
Sunrise: 6:59 A.M.
Sunset: 5:31 P.M.
Moonrise: 6:37 A.M.
Moonset: 4:20 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (1%)
Thursday, February 11
Venus passes 0.4° south of Jupiter at 7 A.M. EST. You can try spotting the close pair in binoculars just before sunrise in the eastern sky, with magnitude –3.9 Venus positioned to the lower right of magnitude –2 Jupiter.
A little less than 6° northeast of Jupiter is Mercury, showing just a sliver of its surface as a 3-percent-lit crescent. Look 6° west of the solar system’s largest planet to find Saturn; the ringed planet is higher above the horizon, but a much dimmer magnitude 0.7.
Note that these twilight planets are all challenging targets with the quickly rising Sun. As with other early-morning events this week, take care to stop observing with optics several minutes before sunrise.
New Moon occurs today at 2:06 P.M. EST.
Sunrise: 6:57 A.M.
Sunset: 5:32 P.M.
Moonrise: 7:17 A.M.
Moonset: 5:28 P.M.
Moon Phase: New
Friday, February 12
Although the
Orion Nebula (M42) is bright enough to see even with the Moon in the sky, nothing beats viewing this stunning
deep-sky object on a clear, moonless night.
By the time full darkness falls, Orion the Hunter is already high in the southeast. Find the familiar three stars of his belt and look to the lower right (south) of the bottom star, Alnitak (Zeta [ζ] Orionis), for a hazy patch of light. That’s the nebula, so large and bright that most can easily make it out with the naked eye.
Turn binoculars or a scope on this target, though, and it really explodes. Buried in the center of the glowing nebula is the Trapezium Cluster — an association of young, hot, bright stars, whose winds are literally blasting away the gas and dust from around them. Can you see the dark cavity they’ve already carved in the surrounding glow?
You’ll want to spend plenty of time exploring the nebula, which often appears greenish to the human eye. Look for dark lanes where dust blocks the nebula’s light and trace the irregular borders of the cloud as its glow diffuses into the dark sky around it. Astrophotographers find this a favorite — and easy — target, so it’s a great way to sharpen your skills before moving on to more challenging options.
Sunrise: 6:56 A.M.
Sunset: 5:33 P.M.
Moonrise: 7:50 A.M.
Moonset: 6:33 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (1%)