My first Magazine Sky & Telescope - 02.2019 | Page 48

FEBRUARY 2019 OBSERVING
Sun, Moon & Planets by Fred Schaaf
To fi nd out what’s
visible in the sky
from your location,
go to skypub.com/
almanac.
Dawn Triplet
A trio of bright planets adorns the dawn skies in February, while Mercury joins Mars
mid-month to grace the evening skies.
his February, the only bright
planet visible in the evening sky all
month long is Mars, which doesn’t set
until the midnight hour is approach-
ing. However, for the second half of
February, tiny Mercury can be observed
low in the west during evening twi-
light. Meanwhile, all month at dawn,
a string of three prominent planets
— Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn — deco-
rates the sky in the southeast. Majestic
Jupiter is highest to the upper right in
the line all month. Venus starts the
month as the middle planet of the
three. But the brilliant world closes the
gap between itself and Saturn until a
close conjunction between the two on
February 18th, after which Venus is
increasingly farther to the lower left of
the ringed planet.
T
DUSK
Mercury was at superior conjunction
with the Sun on the night of January
29–30. Though bright, it doesn’t get
high enough to see in evening twilight
until about February 12th. Look for
the speedy planet low in the west; it
appears a little bit farther above the
horizon at each dusk. Although Mer-
cury’s magnitude dims from around
–1.2 to –0.2 during the second half of
February, the lapse between sunset and
Mercury-set grows to about 1½ hours.
Mercury reaches a greatest eastern
elongation of 18° from the Sun on the
American evening of February 26th.
Around that date, Mercury stands
about 8° or 9° above the horizon 45
minutes after sunset, and its 7″ wide
disk is about half-lit.
Mars shines fairly high in the south-
west after dusk has faded out and sets
around 11 p.m. Since its glorious close
approach to Earth last July, Mars has
dimmed by almost four magnitudes,
and its disk has shrunk to only one-
quarter of its maximum width. The
magnitude of Mars this month lessens
from +0.9 to +1.2, while its apparent
diameter decreases from more than
6″ to less than 5½″. This is too small
to show any surface features in most
amateur telescopes, though you might
notice the planet’s shadowed edge make
it look slightly out-of-round this month.
Mars crosses the boundary line from
45 minutes before sunrise
Around 7 pm
45 minutes before sunrise
EVENING
Dawn, Feb 16
Feb 9 –11
Dawn, Feb 9
Neptune starts setting too soon
after the Sun to observe by mid-month.
ARIES
Jupiter
CETUS
Moon
Feb 11
Jupiter
10°
Venus
S A G I T TA R I U S
Moon
Feb 10
Mars
PISCES
Saturn
Venus
S A G I T TA R I U S
Saturn
Moon
Feb 9
Looking Southeast
46
FE B RUA RY 2 019 • SK Y & TELESCOPE
Looking Southwest, halfway up
Looking Southeast