Monthly Night Sky Report: February 2017

I hope that you were able to see some night sky during January.  It has been cloudy nearly every night for me this past month.  I'm hoping to be able to see something during the month of February.  I'm going through stargazing withdrawals!

Venus, Mars, and the Moon start the month off right by appearing close in the sky on the first night.  Venus will be found closest to the horizon with a crescent Moon appearing higher in the southwest.  The reddish glow of Mars will be found between the two.  Venus is in prime position between the Sun and Earth to see the "phases" of it this month.  Use a pair of binoculars to see this.  The phases will change quite a bit during the month, so be sure to give it a look, especially if the clouds and stormy weather aren't a factor.

As mentioned, Mars will be found close to Venus at the beginning of the month.  In fact, they will be found close together all month!  So if you get clear skies, be sure to give them your attention.  Like Neptune and Mars made a good pair last month, Uranus and Mars will have a similar pairing towards the end of February.  If you have a pair of binoculars, take a look at Mars between the 25th and 27th to see Uranus make its closest approach.  Mars will appear orange-red while Uranus will appear blue-green.

Neptune will be harder to see this month, and you only have the first week to see it.  You can use a pair of binoculars to spot the blue-gray world.  Neptune will be found in the constellation of Aquarius which will be in the west after sunset.  After the first week, Neptune will be too low on the horizon and the Sun's twilight glare will wash it away from view.  Neptune will return to view before sunrise in April, so stay tuned!

Jupiter has been rising earlier each night and will now be visible by 11:30 (local time, of course) on the first night this month.  By the end of the month, you won't have to stay up as late to see Jupiter as it will rise 2 hours earlier.  I'm excited for Jupiter to return to the evening (instead of morning) sky.  Jupiter was the first planet that I looked at through my telescope, Hercules, and it was amazing!  I could see the cloud bands easily as well as the four largest moons.  I have even see one of the moons transit across the disk of Jupiter, leaving a shadow on the surface!  With a pair of binoculars, you can easily see the four Galilean moons.  They will look like stars, but if you check back every hour or so, you can see them move throughout the night.  I've been told that kids are actually able to see the moons without the need of binoculars because of their eyesight being generally better than an adults.  For those with young kids, see if they can see the moons and let me know!

Saturn will rise early in the morning, so don't wait up for it.  At the beginning of the month, Saturn will rise around 4 in the morning.  By the end of the month, it too, will rise about 2 hours earlier.  I'm excited for this ringed planet to return to the evening sky to take another look through my telescope at it.  When I was about 12, Saturn was the first planet that I had ever seen through a telescope and what partially peaked my interest in astronomy.

Mercury will be difficult to catch a glimpse of this month as it lies close to the Sun from our perspective.  It rises shortly before the Sun in the East.  If you are up early in the morning, it might be worth trying to spot it!

Here is the breakdown for the month of February:

February 10: Full Moon
February 17: Venus is at it's brightest for the month
February 26: New Moon

Since I haven't had a lot of time to write a post about anything more than a monthly night sky report, I thought that each month, I would find something from history that happened during the month and report a little on that as well.  There are a few notable things that happened in the month of February throughout history from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster on February 1, 2003, to the discovery of Pluto on February 18, 1930.  John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20, 1962.

I thought all of those were pretty exciting, but what was even more exciting to me, was the birth of two of the greatest astronomy minds.  Nicolaus Copernicus was born on February 19, 1473.  He was responsible for calculating and drawing models of the Sun at the center of the universe instead of the Earth.  We now know that the Sun is not the center of the universe, but the center of our solar system.

Often referred to as the father of astronomy, and even the father of modern science, Galileo Galilei was born on February 15, 1564.  While he wasn't the one to invent the telescope, or even the first to use one, he was one of the first to take very good observational notes of what he saw in the night sky. Before modern science, people believed the heavens above to be perfect.  One of the first objects Galileo looked at, was the Moon.  He noticed craters, mountains, dark spots, and bright spots on the Moon.  The Moon certainly isn't a perfect sphere like everyone believed.  He then turned his telescope to the Sun and noticed black spots on the Sun, before going blind in the eye he was using.  He noticed the Sun was not perfect either.

In January of 1610, Galileo turned his telescope to Jupiter.  He was surprised to discover the four largest moons orbiting Jupiter.  Ganymede, Io, Europa, and Callisto are now known as the Galilean Moons.  If the Earth was the center of the universe (as was still commonly believed), how could something orbiting the Earth have things orbiting it as well?  Many different theories came out, but the one that made the most sense was to have a heliocentric (Sun at the center) universe instead of a geocentric (Earth at the center) universe.  Galileo wrote a paper on his discoveries but was forced not to share or publish his findings by being threatened with torture.  He was also put on house arrest for the remainder of his life, which was close to 8 years.  Galileo sent his findings to another famous scientist and astronomer, Johannes Kepler who was responsible for discovering the orbits of the planets among many other things.  Depending on who you talk to, Kepler also has 3-4 scientific laws.  Perhaps in a future post, I will talk more about him!

Now get outside and look up!