Astroblog: Thursday February 8 to Thursday February 15

Wednesday, February 07, 2024

Thursday February 8 to Thursday February 15

The New Moon is Saturday February 10. Saturn is low in the western twilight and is close to the thin crescent Moon on the 11th. Jupiter is now in the north-western sky but still dominates the early evening sky. Jupiter is near the Moon on the 15th. Venus is visible in the morning twilight above Mars and Mercury. Mars climbs higher in the morning twilight closing in on Venus.

The New Moon is Saturday February 10. The Moon is at perigee, when it is closes to the earth, on the 11th.

Evening sky on Sunday, February 11 as seen from Adelaide at 20:55 ACDST (45 minutes after sunset), Saturn is low above the western horizon close to the crescent moon. you will need a clear level horizon and binoculars to see the pair.

The inset is the approximate binocular view at this time.

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

Evening sky on Thursday, February 15 as seen from Adelaide at 21:42 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset). Jupiter is low above the north-western horizon and not far from the waxing crescent Moon. 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 Saturday, February 10 as seen from Adelaide at 05:44 ACDST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Venus is beginning to lower in the morning twilight. Mercury and Mars are below Venus, with Mercury scraping the horizon.

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

Whole sky on Saturday, February 10 as seen from Adelaide at 21:49 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.

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. Jupiter is near the Moon on the 15th

Saturn is now a difficult to see low in the west and is close to the thin crescent Moon on the 11th.

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