Items Featured In TGP NOMINAL 8.3 - February Skies 2022
Ross Hockham's February Sky Guide:
At the beginning of the month, the Moon is out of the way.
So it's a great time to search the skies for those galaxies, nebula and dimmer sights in our skies.
If you can move away from the towns and cities you should get some nice dark skies before it starts popping up again.
Venus, Mars and Mercury are all rising in the morning sky from around 6am,
with Venus being a lovely bright morning object, which through a telescope will look like a crescent
slowly getting fuller to a near half phase by the end of the month.
Saturn unfortunately sets at the same time as the Sun does
so you won’t see it for a while now.
But Jupiter is still up shining bright for you to see by eye.
Although it is also not placed well for scope viewing setting around 6.30pm.
Uranus is nice and high between the constellation Aries (The Ram) and the constellation Cetus (The Kraken)
but in an area with no real bright stars, so it may be a challenge to spot with a telescope.
Neptune is still in a kind of no mans land between Pisces (The Fish) and Aquarius (The Water Bearer)
but can still be seen with a telescope setting around 20:00.
Massalia, a minor planet reaches opposition on the 5th, in the constellation Cancer (The Crab).
It is a stony asteroid and the parent body of the Massalia family of asteroids
located in the inner region of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Being roughly 90 miles in diameter.
This may be a challenge to find as it sits to the left of the star Acumens.
Creeping slowly towards M44 The Bee Hive Cluster as the month goes on.
6th Last podcast we spoke about a lava plain that we could see on the Moons very edge Mare Orientale.
On the night of the 6th, we are looking at the other side of the Moon.
its Eastern edge is where you can spot the Mare Smythii and Marginis.
They are known as the Liberation Seas.
You can only see them at certain points when the Moon's natural wobble (as it orbits Earth)
brings this edge out further for us to see.
On the evening of the 7th, the Moon sits close to the planet Uranus
although being 43% lit it may wash the dim planet out.
With a telescope you should still be able to spot Uranus, just above the Moon with the star 29 Arietis to its 2 'O'clock.
On the night of the 8th, you will be able to see the Lunar X and V on the terminator.
where the light and dark part meet on the Moon creating this illusion off the tips of some crater’s edges of an X and V.
On the 10th, another minor planet reaches opposition but this time it is a bit dimmer.
11 Parthenope, a large bright main belt asteroid will be located in the constellation Leo (The Lion).
While here see if you can spot the Sickle Asterism, part of Leo's main stars.
This is again in the middle of Leo and Cancer (The Crab).
So a bit of star hopping and searching will be in order and again slowly curves up towards cancer throughout the month.
On the 16th Mercury reaches its greatest western elongation this morning rising an hour before the Sun
so be careful if trying to spot it.
You will need a low horizon and you will notice Venus and Mars popping up first
making a faint morning triangle with the planet Mercury being the far left planet.
This evening we will also have a nice full Moon rising up above the horizon just before 17:00
which as we know always looks pretty great to watch slowly rising up from the horizon.
On the morning of the 18th, Venus and Mars will be not far from each other.
Venus will be nice and bright in the south-east with a fainter red Mars below it.
Be careful not to mistake the red star Antares for the red planet farther to their right.
On the 25th, Another minor planet for you to glimpse is at opposition again in Leo. 471 Papagena
Which is named after a character in Mozart's opera.
It will be located the other side of the constellation just below the constellation Leo Minor (The Lion Cub)
sweeping up towards it.
On morning of the 27th, the grouping of Venus, Mars and the Moon will look awesome.
A thin crescent Moon will be grazing the horizon with the red planet above it and the goddess of beauty shining above that.
Definitely a lovely thing to wake up to and see.
NAKED EYE OBJECT Of The Month:
Now this object will be a challenge for you but as I know many don’t have telescopes or have actually seen this object it will be interesting to see how many can spot it in their skies.
The Andromeda galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy and is around 2.5 million light-years from Earth
and the nearest big one to the Milky Way.
So I was thinking if you guys popped out to a darker sky a few mins away from any towns and looked up
you could possibly see a white smudge in the sky meaning you are actually seeing a galaxy 2.5 million light years away probably one of the farthest things you will see with your own eyes.
It can be found just above the Andromeda Constellation's main star Mirach following a faint line of stars towards the galaxy from the constellation its named after, happy hunting.
BINOCULAR OBJECT Of The Month:
Diamond Ring Asterism in the constellation Ursa Minor (The Little Bear).
For those Astronomers that are perhaps looking to propose to their loved ones this month.
Grab a pair of binoculars and hover them over Polaris (The North Star).
Here you can make out a ring of stars with Polaris being the Diamond a great object to see and to woo that loved one.
TELESCOPE OBJECT Of The Month:
Look for the constellation Perseus (The Hero).
Right in the heart of the constellation is the star Mirfak.
Grab a nice wide eyepiece like 25mm-42mm if you have a 2” adapter to put a 2” eyepiece in this will look even better. Around this star lie a host of others born from the same cloud of gas and dust some 30 to 50 million years ago
which look awesome as you move through the star field with you scope.
ASTRPHOTOGRAPHY OBJECT Of The Month:
Just above the constellation Cassiopeia (The Vain Queen) are a couple of awesome nebulae for you to snap.
The Heart and Soul Nebula are emission nebula located 7,500 and 6,500 lightyears away in the Cassiopeia constellation.
The cosmic gas that forms the nebula is actually glowing itself, rather than reflecting starlight they are being illuminated and carved by powerful streams of charged particles emanating from an open cluster of stars.
Let us know how you got them and the processing you did
so others can learn to get these great sights to share with others.