Monthly Night Sky information provided by Chris Vaughan (@Astrogeoguy) at Starry Night Education (@StarryNightEdu).
When the waning gibbous moon rises in late evening on Sunday, February 16, it will be shining to the upper right (or celestial west) of Virgo’s brightest star Spica. As the night wears on the moon will shift closer to the star while Earth’s rotation carries them west, where they will set after sunrise on […]
The star Algol in the constellation of Perseus represents the glowing eye of Medusa from Greek mythology. Also designated Beta Persei, it is among the most accessible variable stars for skywatchers. During a ten-hour period that repeats like clockwork every 2 days, 20 hours, and 49 minutes, Algol dims noticeably and re-brightens by about a […]
Orion’s three belt stars are bright enough to tolerate tonight’s moonlight. They may look similar, but they are quite different, under closer inspection. The left-most (easterly) of the three, magnitude 1.85 Alnitak (Zeta Orionis) is bluer. In a telescope, Alnitak (Arabic for “the Girdle”) is revealed to be a very tight magnitude 1.85 double star. […]
The bright stars of mighty Orion, the Hunter, shine in the southern sky on mid-February evenings. The sword of Orion, which covers an area of 1.5 by 1 degrees (about the end of your thumb held up at arm’s length), descends from Orion’s three-starred belt. The patch of light in the middle of the sword […]
The moon will complete three quarters of its orbit around Earth, measured from the previous new moon, on Thursday, February 20 at 12:32 p.m. EST or 9:32 a.m. PST, or 17:32 GMT. At the third (or last) quarter phase the moon appears half-illuminated, on its western, sunward side. It will rise around midnight local time, […]