Sky this Week

The following is a brief list of some things to see in this sky, this week Feb 17 to Feb 23, 2008.

International Space Station

No bright passes this week.

USA 193

Sun Feb 17 at 5:56:59 appears in the SE and disappears in the ESE at 5:58:24, magnitude 3.8
Mon Feb 18 at 5:49:02 appears in the South and disappears in the ENE at 5:52:17, magnitude 3.1

Iridium 32

Flare at the Eclipse, Feb 20 7:28:22 pm, magnitude -4, essentially straight north (2 deg azimuth), altitude 52 degrees.

MOON

There is a total eclipse of the Moon this week on Wednesday, Feb 24th. The eclipse begins when the pale outer fringe of the Earth’s shadow touches the Moon’s edge at 6:05 PM MST. The shading will be subtle and won’t be very noticeable until the Moon reaches the Earth’s inner shadow at 6:43 PM. From about 7:30 to 8 PM is perhaps when the lunar eclipse will be the most impressive. The curved dark edge of Earth’s shadow will be seen creeping minute by minute across the lunar landscape. The Earth’s shadow will totally engulf the Moon from 8:00 to 8:52 pm MST. After totality ends at 8:52 PM, events unwind in reverse order; the Moon’s edge reappears in sunlight and gradually returns to full at 11:17 PM.

SUN

The Sun rises at 6:53 am on Sun Feb 17th and sets at 5:53 pm for those of us at 40 degrees north latitude. On Saturday, Feb 23rd it rises at 6:45 am and sets at 5:45 pm. There are no active regions visible on the solar disk.

PLANETS

The planet Mercury is visble low in the southwestern sky about an hour before sunrise. It is in constellation Capricornus; it brightens in magnitude from +1 to +0.5 and is 8.4 arc sec across.
The planet Venus is visible to the lower right of Mercury in the constellation Capricornus. It is -3.8 magnitude and 11.5 arc sec across.
Jupiter is visible in the morning sky as well. It is in the constellation Sagitarius and is -1.8 magnitude in brightness and 33.9 arc sec across.
The planet Mars is high overhead in the southwest in the constellation Taurus early in the evening. It is dims this week to magnitude +0.02 and is 9.7 arc sec across.
The planet Saturn is in the constellation Leo. It will be at opposition on Sunday Feb 24th. It is visible in the eastern sky as soon as it is dark. It is +0.56 magnitude in brightness and the disk is 20 arc sec across.

DOUBLE STARS

Our view of dark sky objects such as galaxies and nebulas is restricted during bright moon lit nights. Thats no reason to leave your scope in the basement. You can still observe the planets and double stars. For example, over in the constellation Orion double stars include Beta Orionis or Rigel, Mintaka or Delta Orionis, Iota Orionis, Zeta Orionis or Alnitak and Lambda Orionis or Meisa. Sigma Orionis is a triple system and Theta1 Orionis has 4 components. There are of course, many others. Check the Astroleague Double Star Club for a list of some great double and multiple stars to observe.