Sky this Week

International Space Station

If you get up early around 5:40:41 am MST on Saturday morning you should see a bright, magnitude -1.1 pass of the ISS. It appears in the SSW and disappears in the ENE at 5:45:48 am MST.

Sun

For those of us around 40 deg. north latitude, the Sun rose today, Sunday, at 6:45 am and it set at 5:47 pm . On Saturday morning, the Sun will rise at 6:35 am and set at 5:55 pm. No active regions were visible on the solar disk today.

Moon

The Moon is in the third quarter phase at 7:18 pm on Thursday.

Planets

Mars is in the constellation Taurus and is +0.2 magnitude in brightness and 9.1 arc sec across

Saturn is in constellation Leo and is +0.6 magnitude in brightness, 20 arc sec across the disk. Saturn is at opposition today, Feb 24th.

Jupiter is in constellation Sagitarrius. It is -1.8 magnitude in brightness and 34.4 arc sec across. Mercury is in constellation Capricornus. It is +0.3 magnitude, 7.5 arc sec across

Venus is in the constellation Capricornus also. It is -3.81 magnitude, 11.3 arc sec across.

Comets

17P/Holmes is 4.8 magnitude and 100 arc min across in constellation Perseus 46P/Wirtanen is 9.5 magnitude and 4.3 arc min across in constellation Aries 29P Schwassman-Wachmann is magnitude 11.5 magnitude and 16 arc sec across (will appear stellar). It is in constellation Auriga.

C/2008 C1 (Chen-Gao) is magnitude 12.3 and 55 arc sec across (will appear stellar) and is in constellation Perseus

C/2007 T1 (McNaught) is magnitude 9.9 and becomes visible for us this week in constellation Columba (below Canis Major)

Dark Sky

We can get lots of time out in the dark this weekend! On Saturday, Mar 1, the moon doesn’t rise until 3:37 am Sunday morning. That leaves lots of time to explore dim galaxies and nebulas. The constellation Cancer is in the southern sky in the early evening around 9-10 pm. It contains several very nice objects to view, such as:

• Messier 44 is one of the largest and brightest open clusters and has been known since ancient times. It spans over 1.5 degrees so is a great object for binoculars or widefield telescope. Many of the brighter stars are distinctly yellow or blueish-white
• Messier 67 open bright cluster with over a hundred 9th to 14th magnitude stars visible
• NGC 2775 is a type SA spiral galaxy that is magnitude 10 in brightness. To locate it, find the 3rd mangitude star Zeta Hydra and then look 3-1.4 degrees east and then slightly north. In a telescope it has a bright mottled halo about 3′ by 1.5′ in size with a large, bright central nucleus. Images of NGC2775 show that it has a smooth central bulge with amazingly complex spirals surrounding it.