{"id":501,"date":"2020-01-31T00:18:46","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T00:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=501"},"modified":"2020-01-31T00:18:46","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T00:18:46","slug":"february-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/february-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"February 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Venus,\never bright, remains a fixture in the evening sky this month as it\nslides alongside the western fish of Pisces. When the month starts, a\nfirst quarter moon is high above the planet in Cetus. After most of a\nlunar month, watch for a crescent moon near Venus in the middle of\nPisces on the 27th<\/sup>.\nThe next night, the moon will be almost exactly where it was among\nthe stars when the month started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mercury is an\nevening object at February’s start. It climbs into Aquarius as the\nconstellation slides into the sunset. By the last week of the month,\nMercury is pretty much lost with the water bearer’s stars in the\nsunset’s glow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North of Pisces,\nlook for Pegasus, recognizable for its Great Square. On the rising\nside of the sky, see Orion, in which Betelgeuse is mysteriously\nfading lately. Like many stars, it is variable. But in the last few\nmonths, it has become dimmer than anyone expected. Perhaps we can\nnever be sure until the star has vanished, but the experts do not\nbelieve it is dying just yet although it is a relatively old star.\nSome estimates put it at more than 8 billion years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few\nhours into the evening and Leo is rising. Virgo rises around\nmidnight. Hours later, still a bit before sunrise, you can see Mars\nrising next to Antares, so named because it was said to be the red\nplanet’s rival. In ancient Greece, Ares was the god of war. Antares\nwas the rival or opponent of Ares. The Romans called the planet Mars.\nThe late Jack Horkheimer, who invited everyone to engage in astronomy\non the Star Gazer TV program, said he was glad the Romans didn’t\nrename the star Antmars<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\nthe time Jupiter rises, the morning light is apparent. The big planet\nis by the teapot lid of Sagittarius. Saturn is a little harder to\nspot, rising near the same constellation but later into the coming\nsunrise. Jupiter and Saturn don’t seem to move much this month\nagainst the stellar background. But Mars is moving toward them. When\nthe moon passes by Mars on the 18th<\/sup>,\nthe planet is closing in on the teapot lid. More about that in a\nmoment. The moon’s waning crescent passes by Jupiter the next morning\nand Saturn the morning after that. Also during this time, Sagittarius\nand the planets by it rise earlier and become easier to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On\nthe 24th<\/sup>,\nMars appears to be above Kaus Borealis, whose name means northern bow\nstar. It is part of the bow that the archer Sagittarius holds. The\nred planet continues moving toward Jupiter in the weeks ahead. It\nwill not be until the middle of March when Mars is near Jupiter and\nnearly the end of March when it’s near Saturn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nthe moon passes near Mars on the 18th<\/sup>,\nit will actually pass in front of the planet for some viewers. The\nwestern parts of North America will get to see the occultation that\nmorning. Eastern parts of the continent will have the challenge of\ntracking the moon and the planet during the daytime. A telescope will\nhelp, but it doesn’t guarantee results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\nIn recent years, a full moon that happens within a day of perigee has\nbecome popularly known as a supermoon. February’s full moon will be\nthe first of four so-called supermoons in a row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Venus, ever bright, remains a fixture in the evening sky this month as it slides alongside the western fish of Pisces. When the month starts, a first quarter moon is high above the planet in Cetus. After most of a lunar month, watch for a crescent moon near Venus in the middle of Pisces on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-59"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":507,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions\/507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}