By now, Earth has travelled far enough around the Sun that the outer visible planets – Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – all appear to the west of the Sun and are, therefore, visible in the morning before sunrise. By Feb. 14 at about 7 a.m., you’ll be able to see from east to west, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, all low to the SE horizon, from 5 degrees to 15 degrees above the horizon, respectively. The problem for many of us on the Sunshine Coast is that topography limits our view to the southeast; best spots to view this would be some places in West Sechelt or the point at Roberts Creek.
The inner planets, Mercury and Venus, travel more quickly around the Sun than we do and are swinging out to their eastern elongations from the Sun; they will make an impressive sight in the evenings in February. By the 10th or so, Venus will be high in the southwest about 30 degrees up and very bright – magnitude -4 in fact – and Mercury will be about 10 degrees above the horizon and shining at magnitude -0.4. Note that for historical reasons higher magnitudes mean less bright and lower (or negative) magnitudes mean more bright. At this time Venus will be the brightest object in the sky after our Sun and Moon. Mercury will be ideally placed for observers with a clear southwest view; it will lie below and to the right of Venus and about as high as it ever gets in our sky. Its close orbit means it moves quickly and never gets very far from the Sun, which is why most people don’t recognize it as a planet, even if they have seen it.
By the 18th of the month, the waning moon will make some interesting close passes to the morning planets low in the southeast; on that day just before it rises, the Moon will pass directly in front of Mars. People a few time zones to the east of us will be able to watch the full occultation but the best we’ll get is to see Mars just to the right of the Moon’s dark edge at about the two o’clock position after the occultation. I try to temper my disappointment with things like this with the knowledge that we’ll probably get clouded out at this time of year anyway. For each of the next two mornings, the Moon will do close passes by Jupiter and Saturn respectively and later in the month on the 27th past Venus in the evening.
For more information about the sky this month, the public is welcome to attend the Sunshine Coast Astronomy Club meetings the second Friday of each month at the Sechelt Library at 7 p.m. February’s meeting will be Friday, Feb. 14 and will feature guest speaker Sarah Pearce talking about the History of Stellar Classification. You may even learn the origin of the phrase, “Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me.”
All of the movements of moon and planets described can be checked out on the web at: www.heavens-above.com
– Richard Corbet, SC Astronomy Club
