In The Sky This Month – February 2010

This feature highlights a number of meteor showers, comets and asteroids which are visible during the month of February 2010. Mars is at its closest and brightest at the beginning of the month. Though it will quickly fade it will remain the dominant planetary body in the evening sky this month.

Note: If anyone has pictures or observations of these objects/events and want to share them, send me a comment and I’ll post them on the blog.

Planets

Venus – Venus is starting its slow climb higher in the evening sky. For the entire month, Venus will only be visible for ~20 minutes after sunset at the start of the month and ~50 minutes after sunset at the end of February. As a result, you will need a clear view of the southwest horizon to see it. Venus will be much higher and easier to see over the next few months. For northern observers, it will be highest in June. The best time for southern observers will be August.

Feb 14 - Moon passes 5° from Venus
Feb 17 - Venus and Jupiter within 0.5° of each other

Jupiter – This month is the last month to see Jupiter in the evening sky. At magnitude -2.0, the King of the Planets is very low in the southwest sky after dusk. By the end of the month it is pretty much invisible to all observers. Observers with a clear SW horizon can watch Jupiter, Venus and the Moon put on a nice show during the middle of the month.

Feb 15 - Moon passes 5° from Jupiter
Feb 17 - Jupiter and Venus within 0.5° of each other

Mars – Mars was at opposition (the point opposite the Sun in the sky) on January 29. Opposition means Mars is closest to Earth and at its brightest. It also means it is visible nearly all night long, rising in east in the early evening, at its highest around midnight, and setting in the west around dawn.

This month the Earth and Mars are slowly moving away from each other. As a result, Mars will quickly fade from magnitude -1.3 to -0.6. Still it will be a brilliant red beacon in the ENE sky right after sundown outshining all but the brightest stars. Note that unlike the stars which twinkle, Mars shines with an unwavering red glow.

Feb 26 - Moon passes close (5°) to Mars

Saturn – Saturn is easy to observe during the morning hours and is sufficiently high enough to be observed in the eastern sky by midnight. Located in Virgo, the planets will appear as bright as a magnitude +0.7 star. Telescope users should note that Saturn’s rings are still close to edge-on.

Feb 2 - Moon and Saturn within 8° of each other

Mercury – Mercury is in the morning sky this month. Northern observers will be able to spot it early in the month as it quickly falls back into the twilight glow. In the south, Mercury starts the month nearly as high as it can get and it should remain visible (with increasing difficulty) for the remainder of the month.

Feb 12 - Moon passes 2° from Mercury

Meteors

February hosts one of the better annual showers of the year in the Quadrantids. Unfortunately this year’s display will be wrecked by bright moonlight. The background rate of meteors crashes in January.  The year is usually split in 2 with January through June having low rates with few major showers while July through December (really through the 1st week of January) have high rates with many major showers.

Sporadic Meteors

Sporadic meteors are not part of any known meteor shower. They represent the background flux of meteors. Except for the few days per year when a major shower is active, most meteors that are observed are Sporadics. This is especially true for meteors observed during the evening. During January, 8-10 or so Sporadic meteors can be observed per hour from a dark moonless sky.

Major Meteor Showers

No major showers this month.

Minor Meteor Showers

Minor showers produce so few meteors that they are hard to notice above the background of regular meteors. Starting this month, info on most of the minor showers will be provided on a weekly basis by Robert Lunsford’s Meteor Activity Outlook.

Additional information on these showers and other minor showers not included here can be found at the following sites: Wayne Hally’s and Mark Davis’s NAMN Notes, and the International Meteor Organization’s 2008 Meteor Shower Calendar.

Comets

Naked Eye Comets (V < 6.0)

None

Binocular Comets (V = 6.0 – 8.0)

None

Small Telescope Comets (V = 8.0 – 10.0)

Comet 81P/Wild 2

Comet Wild 2 is a short-period Jupiter-family comet on a 6.4 year orbit. In 1974 a close approach to Jupiter placed the comet on its current orbit which allows (relatively) close approaches to the Sun and Earth. Swiss professional astronomer Paul Wild found the comet photographically on its first close perihelion in 1978. During its last perihelion passage it was the target of the NASA Stardust spacecraft which flew through its coma, collected cometary dust, and returned the dust to Earth. Though Wild 2 has become bright enough to be seen in small backyard telescopes before, this year’s apparition will be its best since discovery. Not till 2042 will it come closer, and even then only marginally so.

This year Wild 2 will reach perihelion on February 22 at 1.60 AU and closest approach to Earth will occur on April 5 at 0.67 AU. Though the comet will only reach a brightness of magnitude ~9.2 to 9.5 in March, it will remain brighter than magnitude 10.0 from January through May.

Currently the comet is around magnitude 9.5 to 10.0 and should be around magnitude 10.0 or even brighter by the end of the month. At mid-month the comet is located in Virgo (not far from Saturn) at a distance of 1.60 AU from the Sun and 1.86 AU from Earth.

A finder chart for Comet Siding Spring can be found at Comet Chasing and Aktuelle Kometen (in German).

A nice collection of images can be found at the VdS-Fachgruppe Kometen (Comet Section of Germany) and Seiichi Yoshida’s Comet Homepage.

Comet C/2007 Q3 (Siding Spring)

This long-period comet was first seen on 2007 August 25 by Donna Barton of the Siding Spring Survey in Australia. This past Oct. 7th the comet reached a rather distant perihelion at 2.25 AU from the Sun. Unfortunately, the comet and Earth are located on opposite sides of the Sun so the comet is rather far from Earth. Still the comet is observable in the early morning hours as a slowly fading ~9.5 to 10.5 magnitude comet in Bootes. At mid-month the comet is 2.69 AU from the Sun and 2.21 AU from Earth.

A finder chart for Comet Siding Spring can be found at Comet Chasing and Aktuelle Kometen (in German).

A nice collection of images can be found at the VdS-Fachgruppe Kometen (Comet Section of Germany) and Seiichi Yoshida’s Comet Homepage.

Asteroids

Binocular and Small Telescope Asteroids (V < 9.0)

(4) Vesta

Though not as large as Ceres, Vesta is more reflective making it the brightest asteroid in the Main Belt. Vesta is peculiar in that it appears to have evidence of volcanism on its surface. Similar to the Moon, Vesta may be covered with large expanses of frozen lava flows. It is classified as a V-type asteroid and is the only large asteroid with this classification. Many of the smaller V-type asteroids are chips of Vesta blasted off it by past asteroid and comet impacts. Vesta is similar in size to Pallas with dimensions of 347x336x275 miles or 578×560×458 km. Vesta will also be visited by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft which will arrive in 2010.

Vesta starts the month at magnitude 6.4 and brightens to a maximum of 6.1 at opposition on Feb 18. By the end of the month, it has already started to fade at magnitude 6.2. Sixth magnitude is close to the brightest Vesta can get and is easy for binocular observers. If you are lucky enough to be located in a very dark rural site you may even be able to see Vesta by naked eye among the stars of Leo.

A finder chart (needs to be flipped upside down for Northern Hemisphere observers) can be found at the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand. Finder chart for Vesta from Heavens Above.