SkyEye

Welcome to SkyEye, your guide to this month's celestial events.

February 2013

The Calendar

All times and dates are given in Universal Time (UT).
Nightly darkness estimates are calculated for 45° N and 30° S.
Like total solar eclipses, lunar occultation events can be seen only from limited regions on Earth (and sometimes not at all if the occultation takes place during daylight hours). However, the Moon will appear close in the sky to its 'target' for some hours either side of the actual occultation, regardless of where you are.

Date		Event
1	Fri	The Moon occults Spica: visible from Madagascar and western and southern parts of Africa from about 23:15 UT
2	Sat
3	Sun	Last Quarter Moon
4	Mon
5	Tue
6	Wed
7	Thu	Moon at perigee
8	Fri	Dark skies make this an ideal year to look for the Alpha Centaurids (theoretical peak activity: 00:00 UT).
9	Sat
10	Sun	New Moon
11	Mon
12	Tue
13	Wed
14	Thu
15	Fri	Near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will fly past our planet at a distance of only 3.5 Earth radii. This is closer than geosynchronous satellites orbit the Earth! The asteroid is thought to be about 50 metres across, about the same size as the objects that created Meteor Crater in Arizona 50,000 years ago and flattened a Siberian forest in 1908.
16	Sat	Mercury at greatest elongation east
17	Sun	First Quarter Moon
18	Mon	Residents along the south coast of Australia will have a chance to see the waxing gibbous Moon occult Jupiter in an event beginning around 11:30 UT.
19	Tue	Moon at apogee
20	Wed
21	Thu	Neptune at solar conjunction
22	Fri
23	Sat
24	Sun
25	Mon	Full Moon
25	Mon	Jupiter at east quadrature
26	Tue
27	Wed
28	Thu

Coming up next month...

How much will Comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) brighten as it nears the Sun on its first and only trip through the inner solar system?

The Solar System

The word planet is derived from the Greek word for 'wanderer'. Unlike the background stars, planets seem to move around the sky, keeping mostly to a narrow track called the ecliptic, the path of the Sun across the stars. Dwarf planets and small solar-system bodies including comets, are not so constrained, often moving far above or below the ecliptic.

Sun: Capricornus » Aquarius
Mercury: Capricornus » Aquarius » Pisces
Now seen in the evening just after sunset, the smallest planet in the solar system never climbs very high above the western horizon when viewed from the southern hemisphere. Northern hemisphere observers have an easier time in catching a glimpse of this bright but elusive object. Mercury reaches greatest elongation east on 16 February.
Venus: Sagittarius » Capricornus » Aquarius
The morning star is getting lower and lower in the eastern sky with southern hemisphere observers getting the best views.
Mars: Aquarius
The red planet lingers low in the western sunset sky and is difficult to observe.
Jupiter: Taurus
Now moving away from the Pleiades, Jupiter is occulted by the Moon on 18 February. This is an excellent month to observe this gas giant. Being at east quadrature on 25 February means that the shadows of the planet on satellites and vice versa are more pronounced, giving the system a real 3-D effect.
Saturn: Libra
The ringed planet is finally rising before midnight.
Uranus: Pisces
This ice giant is getting increasingly difficult to see in the evening twilight as it approaches conjunction with the Sun next month.
Neptune: Aquarius
A small telescope is usually necessary to view the most distant planet in the solar system but this month, Neptune is lost in solar glare as it reaches solar conjunction on 21 February.

The Celestial Sphere

Constellations are patterns of stars in the sky. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recognises 88 different constellations. The brightest stars as seen from the Earth are easy to spot but do you know their proper names? With a set of binoculars you can look for fainter objects such as nebulae and galaxies or some of the closest stars to the Sun.

Descriptions of the sky for observers in both the northern and southern hemispheres are available for the following times this month. Subtract one hour from your local time if summer (daylight savings) time is in effect.

Local Time	Northern Hemisphere	Southern Hemisphere
1730 hours (1830 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
1930 hours (2030 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
2130 hours (2230 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
2330 hours (0030 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0130 hours (0230 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0330 hours (0430 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0530 hours (0630 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S

For More Information...

Consult our online glossary for non-technical explanations of many of the astronomical terms used in these pages.
Blue moons, eclipses, the dates of Easter and much more can be found at the Interactive Astronomy Pages.
For more information about the objects and events described in SkyEye, visit these astronomy-related sites.

Credits

Much of this information can be found in this month's issue of your favourite amateur astronomy magazine available in your local bookshop. Another excellent source is the current edition of the Astronomical Calendar by Guy Ottewell and published by the Universal Workshop.

The SkyEye banner features the spiral galaxy M81. Despite being nearly 12 million light years away, it is an easy target for binoculars or a small telescope. Northern hemisphere observers will find it in the constellation Ursa Major. This image is a combination of data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer and is courtesy of NASA, ESA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the GALEX Team, A. Zezas and J. Huchra et al.