February 21, 2023: Use a sky map to search out the winter morning stars. The Moon joins Venus because it approaches Jupiter. Mars is touring east in a planetary show.
By Jeffrey L Hunt
Chicago, IL: Dawn, 6:38 a.m. CST; Sundown, 5:31 p.m. CST. Examine native sources for dawn and sundown occasions to your location. Occasions calculated from the US Naval Observatory mica Laptop program.
Transit occasions of Jupiter’s Nice Pink Spot, when it’s on the planet’s heart within the Southern Hemisphere: 7:49 GMT, 17:45 UTC; February 22, 3:41 UTC. Convert the time to your timezone. Within the US, subtract 5 hours for EST, six hours for CST, and so forth. Use the telescope to see the spot. occasions of Sky and telescope journal.
Listed here are the forecasts for as we speak’s planet:
morning sky
Morning sky with out a shiny planet or moon. Mercury rises simply 36 minutes earlier than dawn within the shiny gentle of approaching daybreak. Saturn rises a couple of minutes earlier than dawn. It’s misplaced in shiny daylight for concerning the following month, and seems within the jap sky simply earlier than dawn on the time of the equinox.
This morning’s chart is a round map exhibiting the whole sky an hour earlier than dawn. These charts might be complicated due to their orientation and round shapes.
First consider a flooring map. The place are you whenever you take a look at a map of the Earth? You might be within the sky wanting down on the floor on the bottom, north on the prime of the map and east on the best.
When considering a celestial map, the observer of the sky is on the bottom wanting up. So, the round map is the sky above your head with the highest level marked with a “+” signal. Instructions are normally marked with cardinal factors letters. On the accompanying map, it was generated from the US Naval Observatory mica laptop program, instructions are decided with their azimuth: north is 0 levels; east, 90 levels; south, 180 levels; And west 270 levels.
In theoretical use, maintain the map above your head and rotate the circle to match your bearings. Shortly, you may see that is inconvenient and you will be chasing a digital sky map. Nevertheless, there may be a neater method.
Maintain the map in a cushty place and rotate it within the course you might be in search of. For instance, begin with Antares. It’s situated close to the horizon circle, low to the south, on the map. That is the place it’s within the sky throughout late winter an hour earlier than dawn.
Now look east. Rotate the map in order that the east is on the backside. Notice that Vega is greater than midway between the jap horizon and the upward-pointing “+” signal. You’ll be midway up within the jap sky. Dhumb is lower than midway between the jap, northeast, and higher horizon, whereas Altair is a couple of third of the gap between the jap, southeast, and higher horizon. The 2 stars are in these locations within the sky.
Notice that the morning sky has different shiny stars, together with Spica, Regulus, and Arcturus.
An instance of checking your capacity to learn a celestial map is finding the Large Dipper on the chart. What course will you look and the way excessive within the sky to search out it?
night sky
This night, the crescent moon, 4% lit, joins Venus and Jupiter within the western sky.
Begin wanting west-southwest at 45 minutes after sundown. Shiny Venus is roughly 20 levels above the horizon, with Jupiter 8.2 levels to the higher left.
The Moon is 6.4 levels to the decrease left of Venus. Notice the brightness of the Earth within the night time half, and the daylight mirrored from the options of the Earth brightening the darkness of the Moon.
The three most lovely celestial our bodies at night time are situated inside a circle with a radius of 15 levels. This doesn’t occur regularly. Tomorrow the meeting is contained in the 8 diploma circle.
Venus rapidly overtakes Jupiter, slicing the hole by about 1 diploma, the diameter of two full moons, every night. Venus transits Jupiter on March 1stStStaying inside 10 levels till March eleventhy.
Farther east Mars is marching east in entrance of Taurus. An hour after sundown when the faint stars are seen, Mars is excessive to the south, 10.2° to the higher left of Aldebaran and seven.1° to the decrease proper of Elnath, the southern horn of Taurus.
Over the subsequent week, watch the Pink Planet cross between Elnath and Epsilon Tauri (ε Tau on the chart). The second star is a part of the “V” group that defines the bull’s head. Epsilon is situated on the prime of the V reverse Aldebaran. Speculum could also be required for identification. It’s a lot dimmer than the celebrities within the Pleiades star cluster, at its higher proper.