Photo of the Week. An orange sunset graces the
western sky.
Astronomy news for the week starting Friday, February 2, 2007.
Having passed full phase the night of
Thursday, February 1, our Moon wanes this week in its
gibbous phase, finally reaching third quarter the
morning of Saturday the 10th. The night of Friday the 2nd, you'll
find the just-passed-full-Moon a bit to the east of Saturn,
between the ringed planet and Leo's
Regulus, the trio making a fine
sight during the entire night. The evening of Saturday the 3rd
sees the Moon then to the east of Regulus. The Moon will occult
both Saturn and Regulus as seen from the northlands, the Arctic and
Greenland. Then it's Spica's turn,
when the night of Wednesday the 7th, the Moon will rise to the
southeast of Virgo's brightest
star, which gets passed over on the other side of the world, south
of South America.
The early evening sky is now dominated by brilliant
Venus, which rules southwestern twilight. Look early, as Venus
is gone a bit after 7 PM. While the sky is still fairly light,
look down and to the right of Venus for Mercury, which reaches
greatest eastern elongation to the Sun (a mere 18 degrees) on
Wednesday the 7th. Just four hours earlier, Venus invisibly passes
less than a degree south of Uranus.
The outer planets continue the news as Neptune
passes conjunction with the Sun on Thursday the 8th. Well before
Venus sets, Saturn rises, and is with us the rest of the night, not
setting until after sunrise.
Flipping to the morning sky, find bright Jupiter,
which now rises around 3 AM. The late morning hours present us
with a wonderful giant-planet symmetry, with Jupiter (in the
southeast) just to the northeast of Antares in Scorpius, Saturn (in the west) just to the west of
Regulus in Leo. It's a nice sight. Mars, which hovers in
bright twilight near the eastern horizon, remains difficult to
find.
While Orion crosses the evening
sky, look to the southwest of it to find ancient Eridanus, the River. One of the
longest constellations in the
heavens, it winds to the west of Rigel and then sinks out of sight for
northerners before ending in bright Achernar. Below Orion find box-
like Lepus and triangular Columba, while above the Hunter are Gemini to the left, Taurus to the right, all topped by
Auriga, which holds the most
northerly of first magnitude stars, Capella.
