February 24 Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2022 February 24

Beautiful Albireo AB

Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Eder

Explanation: Beta Cygni is a single bright star to the naked eye. About 420 light-years away it marks the foot of the Northern Cross, famous asterism in the constellation Cygnus. But a view through the eyepiece of a small telescope will transform it into a beautiful double star, a treasure of the night sky in blue and gold. Beta Cygni is also known as Albireo, designated Albireo AB to indicate its two bright component stars. Their visually striking color difference is illustrated in this telescopic snapshot, along with their associated visible spectrum of starlight shown in insets to the right. Albireo A, top inset, shows the spectrum of a K-type giant star, cooler than the Sun and emitting most of its energy at yellow and red wavelengths. Below, Albireo B has the spectrum of a main sequence star much hotter than the Sun, emitting more energy in blue and violet. Albireo A is known to be a binary star, two stars together orbiting a common center of mass, though the two stars are too close together to be seen separately with a small telescope. Well-separated Albireo A and B most likely represent an optical double star and not a physical binary system because the two components have clearly different measured motions through space.

24 February 2022 Daily Correspondence Digest for the Southern Hemisphere’s Moon Phase and Planetary Positions

You can use this link to go forward or backward in time for Moon phase information. If you are curious, you can even find out what phase the Moon was in when you or anyone else was born.

From Moongiant.com

Today and tonight the Moon will be in a Waning Crescent phase. In this phase the Moon’s illumination is growing smaller each day until the New Moon. During this part of the Moon cycle, the Moon is getting closer to the Sun as viewed from Earth and the night side of the Moon is facing the Earth with only a small edge of the Moon being illuminated. This phase is best viewed an hour or 2 before the sunrise and can be quite beautiful if you’re willing to get up early. It can also be a great time to see the features of the Moon’s surface. Along the edge where the illuminated portion meets the dark side, the craters and mountains cast long shadows making them easier to observe with a telescope or binoculars.

Visit the February 2022 Moon Phases Calendar to see all the daily moon phase for this month.

Today’s Waning Crescent Phase

The Waning Crescent on February 24 has an illumination of 44%. This is the percentage of the Moon illuminated by the Sun. The illumination is constantly changing and can vary up to 10% a day. On February 24 the Moon is 22.75 days old. This refers to how many days it has been since the last New Moon. It takes 29.53 days for the Moon to orbit the Earth and go through the lunar cycle of all 8 Moon phases.

The 8 Lunar Phases

There are 8 lunar phases the Moon goes through in its 29.53 days lunar cycle. The 4 major Moon phases are Full Moon, New Moon, First Quarter and Last Quarter. Between these major phases, there are 4 minor ones: the Waxing Crescent, Waxing Gibbous, Waning Gibbous and Waning Crescent. For more info on the Moon Cycle and on each phase check out Wikipedia Lunar Phase page.

Phase Details

Phase: Waning Crescent
Illumination: 44%
Moon Age: 22.75 days
Moon Angle: 0.55
Moon Distance: 363,671.63 km
Sun Angle: 0.54
Sun Distance: 148,076,562.53 km

Useful Moon Resources

Check the weather before a night of Moon gazing at weather.com

For a list of all the current meteor showers visit American Meteor Society

If you need to calculate the planetary positions for a specific use and time, click on this link

Currentplanetarypositions.com

To figure out GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) to your local time use this link

For Your Local Time and Date

Southeastern Hemisphere

The time for these Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Sao Paulo, Brazil, South America

24 February 2022
08:00 pm GMT 5:00 PM BRT
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:06 Pisces 11
Moon:17 Sagittarius 53
Mercury:11 Aquarius 05
Venus:22 Capricorn 22
Mars:22 Capricorn 59
Jupiter:12 Pisces 51
Saturn:18 Aquarius 19
Uranus:11 Taurus 25
Neptune:22 Pisces 15
Pluto:27 Capricorn 40
True Lunar Node:26 Taurus 10 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:26 Taurus 38 Rx
Lilith (Black Moon):24 Gemini 33
Chiron:10 Aries 19
Ceres:03 Gemini 03
Pallas:03 Aries 49
Juno:09 Aquarius 06
Vesta:23 Capricorn 09

Eris:23 Aries 52

Fire:4
Earth:7
Air:5
Water:3

Cardinal:7
Fixed:6
Mutable:6

Obliquity of the Nine Planets

Southern Hemisphere

The time for these Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Cape Town, South Africa

24 February 2022
03:00 pm GMT 5:00 PM SAST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:05 Pisces 58
Moon:14 Sagittarius 56
Mercury:10 Aquarius 49
Venus:22 Capricorn 13
Mars:22 Capricorn 49
Jupiter:12 Pisces 48
Saturn:18 Aquarius 18
Uranus:11 Taurus 24
Neptune:22 Pisces 14
Pluto:27 Capricorn 39
True Lunar Node:26 Taurus 10 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:26 Taurus 38 Rx
Lilith (Black Moon):24 Gemini 31
Chiron:10 Aries 19
Ceres:03 Gemini 00
Pallas:03 Aries 44
Juno:09 Aquarius 02
Vesta:23 Capricorn 03
Eris:23 Aries 52

Fire:4
Earth:7
Air:5
Water:3

Cardinal:7
Fixed:6
Mutable:6

Southwestern Hemisphere

The time for these Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

24 February 2022
06:00 am GMT 5:00 PM AEDT
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:05 Pisces 36
Moon:09 Sagittarius 39
Mercury:10 Aquarius 20
Venus:21 Capricorn 56
Mars:22 Capricorn 33
Jupiter:12 Pisces 43
Saturn:18 Aquarius 15
Uranus:11 Taurus 24
Neptune:22 Pisces 14
Pluto:27 Capricorn 39
True Lunar Node:26 Taurus 11 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:26 Taurus 39 Rx
Lilith (Black Moon):24 Gemini 29
Chiron:10 Aries 18
Ceres:02 Gemini 55
Pallas:03 Aries 36
Juno:08 Aquarius 53
Vesta:22 Capricorn 52
Eris:23 Aries 51

Fire:4
Earth:7
Air:5
Water:3

Cardinal:7
Fixed:6
Mutable:6

February 23 Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2022 February 23

Orion over Green Bank

Image Credit & Copyright: Dave Green

Explanation: What will the huge Green Bank Telescope discover tonight? Pictured, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) on the lower right is the largest fully-pointable single-dish radio telescope in the world. With a central dish larger than a football field, the GBT is nestled in the hills of West Virginia, USA in a radio quiet zone where the use of cell phones, WiFi emitters, and even microwave ovens are limited. The GBT explores our universe not only during the night — but during the day, too, since the daytime sky is typically dark in radio waves. Taken in late January, the featured image was planned for months to get the setting location of Orion just right. The image is a composite of a foreground shot taken over a kilometer away from the GBT, and a background shot built up of long exposures during the previous night. The deep background image of Orion is fitting because the GBT is famous for, among many discoveries, mapping the unusual magnetic field in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.

February 23, 2022 Daily Correspondence Digest for the Northern Hemisphere’s Moon Phase and Planetary Positions

You can use this link to go forward or backward in time for Moon phase information. If you are curious, you can even find out what phase the Moon was in when you or anyone else was born.