{"id":769,"date":"2022-01-29T23:27:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-29T23:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/?p=769"},"modified":"2022-01-29T23:27:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-29T23:27:14","slug":"february-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/february-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"February 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Venus,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Brilliant\nVenus shines left of Mars in the morning twilight at February’s\nstart. Venus is in Scutum and Mars is above Kaus Borealis (the\nnorthern bow star) atop the Sagittarius teapot. Close to sunrise, you\nmay be able to find Mercury below them left of Sagittarius. Venus and\nMars draw closer to each other as they move into the northern part of\nSagittarius. They seem to be moving toward Mercury also, but the\nmessenger planet isn’t staying. It stays nearly in place for about a\nweek into the month and then retreats toward the sun. Mercury’s at\ngreatest elongation 26.3\u00b0 west of the sun on the 16th<\/sup>.\nMars and Venus continue slowly closing in on each other until they\nare tracking parallel to each other in the last few days of February.\nThe waning crescent moon pulls close to them on the morning of the\n27th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In\nthe last few days of the month, Mercury and Saturn are close. But\nthey are also in the light of the sun glow before sunrise for\nwatchers in the middle and high latitudes of the northern hemisphere.\nYou might spot them there with binoculars. The ringed planet is left\nof Mercury. This is your first chance to see it after its solar\nconjunction on the 4th<\/sup>.\nThe view is much better for those near the equator and south of it.\nIf that’s where you’re watching from, you get a good chance to see\nMercury and Saturn together. And with the moon in the neighborhood on\nthe 27th<\/sup>\nand 28th<\/sup>,\nit’s going to be even more splendid!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Jupiter,\nits departure from the evening sky imminent, sets a couple hours\nafter the sun as the month starts. A new crescent moon is close to\nthe planet on the evening of the 2nd<\/sup>.\nBy mid-month, you won’t be able to see the planet in the post-sunset\nglow except perhaps with binoculars. After that, don’t even try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Neptune is somewhat above Jupiter this month. You’ll need binoculars or a telescope to see the faint blue dot. A finder guide, such as the animated graphic here, will help you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Uranus is also a faint blue dot. It’s near the head of Cetus this month. It’s another object that requires magnification and a finder guide. The animated graphic here also shows how Ceres moves between the Pleiades and the Hyades. It’s a faint white dot that also requires magnification.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercury\nis at aphelion 0.467 astronomical units from the sun on the 28th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mars\ngoes through its southward equinox on the 24th<\/sup>.\nIt’s the equivalent of Earth’s September equinox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoon will pass in front of Uranus on the 7th<\/sup>.\nYou’ll have to be in the ocean area southwest of South Africa to see\nit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moon\nphases for February: new on the 1st<\/sup>,\nfirst quarter on the 8th<\/sup>,\nfull on the 16th<\/sup>,\nlast quarter on the 23rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmoon goes north of the equator on the 5th<\/sup>,\nreaches northern lunistice at 26.4\u00b0 on the 12th<\/sup>,\ngoes south of the equator on the 19th<\/sup>,\nand reaches southern lunistice at 26.6\u00b0 on the 26th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lunar\napogee is on the 11th<\/sup>\nat 405,000 km or 251,600 miles. Perigee is on the 26th<\/sup>\nat 367,700 km or 228,500 miles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brilliant Venus shines left of Mars in the morning twilight at February’s start. Venus is in Scutum and Mars is above Kaus Borealis (the northern bow star) atop the Sagittarius teapot. Close to sunrise, you may be able to find Mercury below them left of Sagittarius. Venus and Mars draw closer to each other as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-61"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769","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=769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":775,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions\/775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skycaramba.com\/monthly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}