{"id":892,"date":"2013-01-27T00:00:30","date_gmt":"2013-01-27T00:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/?p=892"},"modified":"2013-01-20T18:25:06","modified_gmt":"2013-01-20T18:25:06","slug":"february-2013-astronomy-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/27\/february-2013-astronomy-events\/","title":{"rendered":"February 2013 astronomy events"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u00a0\u00a1SkyCaramba! Weekly astronomy blog for the week ending February 2, 2013\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Look for Mars very low on the western horizon after sunset in early February. Almost a week into the month, you\u2019ll notice a brighter object approaching it from below. That\u2019s Mercury. The messenger will be 0.3\u00b0 north of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/27\/february-2013-astronomy-events\/mercury-and-mars\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-894\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-894\" title=\"Mercury and Mars\" src=\"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Mercury-and-Mars.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"236\" height=\"291\" \/><\/a>the red planet on the 8<sup>th<\/sup>. Mercury will then be above Mars, a little higher above it each night until the 16<sup>th<\/sup>. On that day, Mercury will be at greatest elongation 18.1\u00b0 east of the sun. In northern latitudes where the sun is setting later each day, these two planets will be getting harder to see before they set. The two planets will be close together again on the 26<sup>th<\/sup>, 4.2\u00b0 from each other and just 10\u00b0 from the sun and much harder to see.<\/p>\n<p>If you want more of a challenge, you can try to find Neptune 0.4\u00b0 north of Mars on the 4<sup>th<\/sup> and the same distance north of Mercury on the 6<sup>th<\/sup>. Neptune is very dim, its light will be going through very much atmosphere before it gets to you, and it will set almost as soon as it\u2019s dark enough to see. If you see it at all, you will see it briefly.<\/p>\n<p>Mercury will be at perihelion on the 17<sup>th<\/sup>. It will be slightly less than one third of an Earth-Sun distance from the sun.<\/p>\n<p>Venus is at aphelion on the 21<sup>st<\/sup>. It will be 0.7 astronomical units from the sun.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/27\/february-2013-astronomy-events\/saturn\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-895\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-895\" title=\"Saturn\" src=\"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Saturn.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"445\" height=\"661\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Saturn.png 445w, https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Saturn-201x300.png 201w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 445px) 100vw, 445px\" \/><\/a>The southern solstice on Mars will be on the 26<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>The moon occults Spica on the 2<sup>nd<\/sup>. This will be visible from southern Africa and the Angola Basin. The moon is passing in front of the star approximately every 27 days for the next several months. The same parts of Africa and the Atlantic Ocean will get repeat performances in April and June.<\/p>\n<p>A very thin crescent moon will approach Venus in the morning sky on the 9<sup>th<\/sup>. The best viewing for Venus this month is from the southern hemisphere.<\/p>\n<p>A day after first quarter phase, the moon will occult Jupiter on the 18<sup>th<\/sup>. This won\u2019t be highly visible. You will have to be in some extreme southern parts of Australia or the ocean area between the Australian coast and Antarctica.<\/p>\n<p>Jupiter spends the month moving slowly eastward near the Hyades V.<\/p>\n<p>The moon is near Saturn on the 2<sup>nd<\/sup> and 3<sup>rd<\/sup>. Saturn will spend the month at a near standstill between Libra and Virgo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two planets meet in the evening sky. Southern solstice on Mars. Saturn at a standstill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[5,25,4,142,18,614,17],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":898,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892\/revisions\/898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}