The  Star Review for Tuesday, February 18 thru Sunday, February 21

Tuesday, February 16
Although Jupiter plays a major role in the lineup of planets visible before dawn, it also stands out in the evening sky. The giant planet rises around 7:30 p.m. local time along with the background stars of southeastern Leo. At magnitude –2.4, Jupiter outshines every other point of light in the sky until Venus rises shortly before dawn. A telescope reveals the gas giant’s 44″-diameter disk and stunning detail in its dynamic atmosphere. If you look carefully tonight, the planet appears to sport a “black eye” as the shadow of its giant moon Ganymede crosses the disk. Any scope will show the inky black spot as it moves from east to west across the bright cloud tops of Jupiter’s northern hemisphere. The shadow transit begins at 10:57 p.m. EST and runs until 2:18 a.m. The moon itself crosses the planet’s disk some two hours later.

Wednesday, February 17
A pair of fine binocular objects are on display during evenings this week. The open star clusters M46 and M47 reside about a degree apart in the northwestern corner of the constellation Puppis the Stern, a region that climbs highest in the south around 10 p.m. local time. The two lie about 12° east-northeast of the sky’s brightest star, Sirius. The western cluster, M47, glows at 4th magnitude and appears as a fuzzy patch sprinkled with several pinpoint stars. Sixth-magnitude M46 shows up as a hazy collection of faint stars that is hard to resolve under most conditions. Although it contains nearly twice as many stars as M47, M46 appears fainter and fuzzier because it lies some three times farther from Earth. To find more objects worth exploring through binoculars on these February nights, see “11 top winter binocular treats” in the February issue of Astronomy.

Thursday, February 18
The variable star Algol in Perseus reaches minimum brightness at 10:50 p.m. EST, when it shines at magnitude 3.4. If you start viewing it this evening, you can watch it more than triple in brightness (to magnitude 2.1) over the course of a few hours. This eclipsing binary star runs through a cycle from minimum to maximum and back every 2.87 days. Algol appears high in the west after sunset and sinks toward the northwestern horizon after midnight.

Friday, February 19
Two dim solar system objects lie near each other in February’s evening sky. The easier to spot is 6th-magnitude Uranus. It lurks in southern Pisces and appears some 30° high in the west as darkness settles in. To find it, first locate the Great Square of Pegasus, which now orients to the western horizon like a baseball diamond. Pick out Beta (β) and Gamma (γ) Pegasi, the stars at the right and left corners, respectively, of this asterism. A line from Beta to Gamma spans 20°. Extend this line 15° more and you’ll be in Uranus’ vicinity. Center magnitude 4.3 Epsilon (ε) Piscium in your binoculars and Uranus will show up 1.7° east-southeast of the star. This evening, the 8th-magnitude asteroid Vesta resides 6° southeast of Uranus. If you have a reasonably dark sky, both should appear in the same field of view through 7×50 binoculars.

Saturday, February 20
Mars and Saturn make a pretty pair after midnight this week. Mars rises around 12:30 a.m. local time and climbs some 30° high in the south by the time morning twilight starts to paint the sky. Saturn follows about 90 minutes behind Mars. During the latter half of the week, both objects shine at magnitude 0.5 and should appear equally bright. They may not seem that way to you, however, because not everyone perceives color in exactly the same way. Some will see ruddy Mars as a bit brighter while others will claim yellowish Saturn the slight winner. But the real winners will be those who point a telescope in Saturn’s direction. The ringed planet shows a 16″-diameter disk surrounded by a stunning ring system that spans 37″ and tilts 26° to our line of sight. Meanwhile, the Red Planet appears 8″ across and should display a prominent north polar cap.

Sunday, February 21
This is a good week to look for Sirius in the evening sky. The night sky’s brightest star (at magnitude –1.5) appears due south and at its highest position between 8 and 9 p.m. local time. It then lies about one-third of the way from the horizon to the zenith from mid-northern latitudes. (The farther south you live, the higher it appears.) If you point binoculars at Sirius, look for the pretty star cluster M41 in the same field of view, just 4° below the star.

Source:
Astronomy Magazine

Your Sun & Moon Data for Tuesday, February 16th

The Sun
Sun Direction: ↑ 145.06° SE
Sun Altitude: 33.39°
Sun Distance: 91.830 million mi
Next Equinox: Mar 19, 2016 11:30 PM (Vernal)
Sunrise Today: 6:42 AM↑ 105° East
Sunset Today: 5:35 PM↑ 255° West
Length of Day: 10 hours, 52 minutes

 

The Moon
Moon Direction: ↑ 47.61° NE
Moon Altitude: -20.92°
Moon Distance: 234730 mi
Next Full Moon: Feb 22, 2016 12:19 PM
Next New Moon: Mar 8, 2016 7:54 PM
Next Moonrise: Today12:16 PM
Current Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous
Illumination of Moon: 64.9%

 

Source:
timeanddate.com

 

The 13 Commandments of being a Witch

1. Thou shall not turn thy ex into a frog.
2. Thou shall not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
3. Thou shall not laugh at nekked snow sprites.
4. Thou shall not get drunk with thy Goddess’s wine.
5. Thou shall not sacrifice thy little sister.
6. Thou shall not go running around proclaiming thy witchhood if thy are in times of burning.
7. Thou shall not question the word of thy High Priestess – She is God.
8. Thou shall not laugh at being nekked at coven – thou shall be killed.
9. Thou shall not commit to signing anything that declares any single person as thy lord and savior.
10. Thou shall not invoke thy Watchtowers only to say “never mind”.
11. Thou shall not burn enough candles to burn thy house down.
12. Thou shall not have the magickal name “Sir Stinky Fartsalot”.
13. Thou shall not call coven only for laughs.

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.

2016 February 15

White Rock Fingers on Mars
Image Credit: THEMIS, Mars Odyssey Team, ASU, JPL, NASA

 

Explanation: What caused this unusual light rock formation on Mars? Intrigued by the possibility that they could be salt deposits left over as an ancient lakebed dried-up, detailed studies of these fingers now indicate a more mundane possibility:volcanic ash. Studying the exact color of the formation indicated the possible volcanic origin. The light material appears to have eroded away from surrounding area, indicating a very low-density substance. The stark contrast between the rocks and the surrounding sand is compounded by the unusual darkness of the sand. The featured picture was taken with the Thermal Emission Imaging System on the Mars Odyssey, the longest serving spacecraft currently orbiting Mars. The image spans about 10 kilometers inside a larger crater.

Moon near star Aldebaran February 15

Tonight – February 15, 2016 – the moon shines close to the star Aldebaran, brightest light in the constellation Taurus, for a portion of the night. The sky chart above shows the moon and Aldebaranas twosome appears at mid-northern North American latitudes on the evening of February 15.

Their closeness to one another will vary worldwide, but even so, Aldebaran will be the closest bright star to the moon on this night, no matter where you are on the globe.

In fact, if you’re in just the right place, you can actually watch the moon occult – pass in front of – Aldebaran. Aldebaran will disappear behind the dark side of the waxing gibbous moon and reappear on the moon’s illuminated side.

Tonight’s occultation is visible in its entirety during the nighttime hours from much of the Pacific Ocean and Hawaii. The far West Coast of the United States sees only the beginning of the occultation because Aldebaran will set before the occultation ends. We give the occultation times for two localities in local time, so no time conversion is necessary:

Honolulu, Hawaii (February 15, 2016)
Occultation begins: 11:09 p.m. local time
Occultation ends: 11:45 p.m. local time

Los Angeles, California (February 16, 2016)
Occultation begins: 1:05 a.m local time
Aldebaran sets: 1:36 a.m. local time

The occultation also takes place during the daylight hours on February 16 in southeast Asia, China and Japan. The International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) gives the occultation times for numerous localities in Universal Time. Click here to find out how to convert Universal Time to your local time.

At present, we’re in the midst of an oocultation series of the star Aldebaran.

This ruddy star depicts the Bull’s eye in the zodiacal constellation Taurus the Bull. Can you see its reddish color in the moon’s glare?

Occultation series of the star Aldebaran. A little over a year ago, the first of a series of 49 monthly lunar occultations of Aldebaran began on January 29, 2015. This series will finally conclude on September 3, 2018. An occultation series of Aldebaran always starts in the polar regions of the Northern Hemisphere.

After the initial occultation on January 29, 2015, each subsequent occultation will occur farther and farther south on Earth’s globe, until reaching its southernmost point midway through the occultation series. The southernmost lunar occultation of Aldebaran will happen on August 25, 2016. Only far-northern regions of the Southern Hemisphere near the equator will be able to witness this southernmost occultation. Then the series will move northward again, until the concluding occultation in the Arctic regions on September 3, 2018.

These Aldebaran occultation series repeat in cycles of 18.6 years. The last series featured 48 lunar occultations from August 8, 1996 to February 14, 2000. The next series will present 48 occultations from August 18, 2033 to February 23, 2037.

Bottom line: Enjoy the close pairing of the moon and star Aldebaran – brightest light in Taurus the Bull – on the night of February 15, 2016.

 

Author

Bruce McClure

The Wisdom of Buddha

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.