Stargazing this Week
Hey Everyone!
The winter skies lately have been volatile. Gorgeous darkness from the New Moon has been interrupted by occasional bouts of inclement weather. Binoculars in hand, it’s been fun to get outside again.
Mercury Rising
Mercury — the innermost planet — is approaching its “greatest western elongation”. Its orbit and Earth’s orbit will align to give the greatest apparent seperation in the sky.
In other words, its prime planet viewing.
Mercury is normally obscured by the sun, but for the next few weeks will rise just before the dawn. Get up and outside before 6:30am and look East to catch glimpse of this planet. The other inner planets Venus — the bright one — and Mars will be nearby.
Mercury’s greatest western elongation happens on February 16th.
Cygnus and Friends
If you’re up early to see Mercury, look slightly north of East to find the Northern Cross on its side. This asterism is actually part of Cygnus the Swan, flying parallel to the ground.
Deneb, Cygnus’ brightest star, is massive. It’s a blue-white supergiant. Supergiants are massive stars that have fused all their hydrogen gas to helium, which it subsequently fuses to form heavier elements. This change in nuclear fuel results in the expanded size. Measurements of Deneb’s distance to Earth are disputed — but current findings place it well over 2000 light years from us. This suggests a brightness well over 200,000 times that of our Sun. A star that far must be very bright!
Being so large and bright, Deneb appears to be slowly headed towards Red Supergiant status, like Orion’s Betelgeuse or Scorpius’s Antares. These stars, in turn, are destined for a core-collapse supernova.
If you’ve got a telescope, aim it just east of Deneb to find NGC7000, the so-called “North American Nebula”.
Cygnus dives below the Northern horizon early in the evening, although if you’ve got a clear view, Deneb stays out all night.
Jupiter Hiding
If getting up early isn’t your thing, look west at sunset to catch a glimpse of Jupiter. Our biggest gas giant sets around 6:45pm, and will only be out in the daylight ours for the next few months. If you catch it tonight night you’ll get a beautiful glimpse of the planet against the crescent Moon.
Comet 19P/Borrelly
If you’ve got a telescope, there’s a comet out! Comet 19P/Borrelly is out to the west. In 2001, 19P/Borrelly became the first comet to be visited by a spacecraft. As a result, we’ve got unreasonably good photographs of that space rock. Between February 5 and 6 it’s flanked by young moon as it crawls its way up the Southwestern sky. Get out there mid-evening before it sets — typically around 11pm.
As always, check out Stellarium for a great, open source, at home planetarium applicaiton. I hope you’re out there, enjoying the night sky! Do let us know what you’re observing these days!
As always, check out Stellarium for a great, open source, at home planetarium applicaiton. I hope you’re out there, enjoying the night sky! Do let us know what you’re observing these days!
