The Moon
New ------------- 3rd up from 07:33 to 17:41
First Quarter -- 11th up from 09:52 to 01:47
Full ------------- 18th up from 18:05 to 06:51
Last Quarter -- 24th up from 01:21 to 09:13
It’s still winter, and continues to be harder than we’re used to. Low temperatures for long periods. The winter constellations are up and moving towards spring, hopefully with speed.
Planets in February.
On the 1st of February, Neptune will set 90 mins after the Sun at 6pm, but will be unavailable for observation after the first week, being too close to it. In fact, on the 17th it will be within half a degree.
Jupiter, at that time will be 27° up in the south west, with Uranus 4° ahead. Jupiter will set at 9:15pm and Uranus some 20 mins earlier. At the end of February at 6pm, Jupiter will be 18° up, with Uranus now 8° ahead. They’ll set, Jupiter at 8:10pm and Uranus about 50 mins earlier.
Jupiter has, for the last few months, been missing its South Equatorial Belt, but it’s coming back, and I have a webcam photograph of it half back, that is, seen half way round the disc, as though someone with a very big paint brush has started to paint it in from some point and is continuing round the disc. It was taken mid January.
Mars will be too close to the Sun for observation for all February.
Mercury will start the month rising only 30 mins before the Sun, and not safe for observation. It will continue for the rest of the month too close to the Sun. This puts Neptune Mars and Mercury out of bounds.
Saturn on the other hand, will continue to blossom, rising on the 1st of February at 11pm, and at 9pm on the 28th. It will be at mag 0.5 and now 19 arcsec, beginning to make its presence felt. By midnight it’ll be 23° up. It’ll only get up to 34° this year when at it’s highest, not really a good height, but better than nothing, particularly as the rings should be widening. When up it will be available for the rest of the night.
Venus will be rising soon after 5am on the 1st of the month, very bright at mag -4.3, with a 61% phase. By the end of the month it'll rise half an hour later, when it'll begin to be overtaken by dawn. It'll be of similar brightness but have a 70% phase.
Meteor Showers in February.
There are a few meteor showers this month but none of any consequence.
Comets.
There aren’t any naked eye comets that I know of, but the nearest to it are C103P Hartley, yes, that Hartley, now about mag 13, so not visible without a large telescope. Possible to photograph though. It’s in the eastern end of Monoceros. Another in the same part of the sky is C/2009 K5 McNaught, in the northern part of Taurus at mag 16. So not visible again, but possible to picture with a well driven large telescope and CCD camera. Both are likely to present a tiny fuzz for your troubles, but there’s no denying the elation when blessed with success.
You can look up their and other comets’ ephemerides at http://www.minorplanetcenter.org/iau/ephemerides/comets This will get you to a long list of comets. Click on your choice and its ephemerides will be screened. Look for the line “Download this Ephemeris as a KML file”. Click on it to download it. It should settle on your PC’s desktop or wherever you choose. When it’s arrived, click on the file, or double click if necessary, and it’ll wake up google Earth and present you with a message suggesting you switch to google Sky. Click on Switch to Sky, and it’ll show you the track of the comet, with dates and mag etc.
You may be able to use this tactic for any comet you hear of in the news media, and if you note one worth looking for, let us all know.
For manmade satellites, the ISS and Iridium flares etc., you’ll have to check http://www.heavens-above.com , and for any sky charts of planets or stars or other objects, contact me at the observatory at http://donastro.org.uk