Astroblog: Thursday February 1 to Thursday February 8

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Thursday February 1 to Thursday February 8

The Last Quarter Moon is Saturday February 3. Saturn is low in the western twilight. Jupiter is now in the north-western sky but still dominates the early evening sky. Venus is visible in the morning twilight above Mars and Mercury. Mars climbs higher in the morning twilight closing in on Venus. The thin crescent Moon is close to Venus on the 8th.

The Last Quarter Moon is Saturday February 3.

Evening sky on Saturday, February 3 as seen from Adelaide at 21:07 ACDST (45 minutes after sunset), Saturn is low above the western horizon .

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (45 minutes after sunset).

Evening sky on Saturday, February 3 as seen from Adelaide at 21:57 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset). Jupiter is above the north-western horizon. The inset is the telescopic view at this time.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset).

Morning sky on Thursday, February 8 as seen from Adelaide at 05:42 ACDST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Venus is beginning to lower in the morning twilight. Mercury and Mars are below Venus.

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise).

Whole sky on Saturday, February 3 as seen from Adelaide at 21:57 ACDST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Saturn has set, and Jupiter is low in the north-west.

Orion is almost due north. Bright Sirius is high in the eastern sky. Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are a wealth of binocular objects to discover.

Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

Mercury is low in the morning twilight. It is heading towards the horizon.

Venus is in the morning twilight, it will now sink towards the horizon but will remain visible for all of February. The thin crescent Moon is close to Venus on the 8th.

Mars is rising in the morning twilight and is coming closer to Venus.

Jupiter is highest around civil twilight and is now visible low in the early evening sky.

Saturn is now a difficult to see low in the west.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/

Labels: weekly sky