We start out this month with Jupiter still visible in the Northwestern sky at the start of evening, but just barely.
If you want a look at it through your telescope do it as soon as evening twilight ends. If you wait much later Jupiter will be so low in the western sky that it will get blurr
ed up by the Earth’s thicker atmosphere.
Even before that happens Jupiter won’t be nearly as big and bright as it was in autumn because it’s much farther away at a distance of more than half a billion miles.
Nonetheless you should easily resolve the disk of the planet with your telescope and maybe see some of the darker cloud bands that stripe the largest planet in our solar system.
You may see up to four of its larger Galilean moons that circle the great planet in periods of 2 to 17 days. Some nights one or more of the moons may be behind Jupiter or lost in the glow of the behemoth planet.
Stargazing is wonderful this month. In fact this is one of the best times of the year. Bundle up and see what I mean. It’s a fabulous show, especially if you can get away from the city lights.
Even if you have to put up with urban lighting you can still see a lot of bright stars and constellations, especially in the southern half of the sky. The constellation Orion the Hunter and the gang of bright constellations surrounding it are the main celestial event.
There’s Orion himself surrounded by his cast of characters, such as Taurus the Bull; Auriga, the retired Chariot Driver turned goat farmer; Gemini the Twins; Lepus the Killer Rabbit; Canis Minor, the Little Dog; and Canis Major, the Big Dog.
At the nose of the Big Dog is Sirius, the brightest star we see in the entire night sky anytime of the year, shining brightly more than 50 trillion miles away or about 8.5 light-years.
You would think with the logjam of bright stars and constellations in the winter sky that we would be facing toward the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Actually we’re facing away from the galactic center, but toward one of the brighter arms of the Milky Way.
There’s even a sign of spring in the February skies with the first early evening appearance of the constellation Leo the Lion. Leo resembles a backwards question mark in the eastern sky. You’ll get a lot better look at it later in the evening as it rises higher.
Just to the lower left of Regulus, the brightest star of Leo at the bottom of the question mark, is the wonderful ringed planet Saturn that reaches its closest point to the Earth later in February.
Even with the smallest of telescopes you should be able to see the ring system of Saturn, especially later in the evening as it rises above the blurring atmospheric sludge near the horizon. Remember to let your telescope sit outside for at least half an hour before you use it to let the optics adapt to the cold winter air.
Mike Lynch is an astronomer and professional broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis and is author of the book, “Washington Starwatch,” available at bookstores. Check his website, www.lynchandthestars.com.
The Everett Astronomical Society: www.everettastro.org/.
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