SkyEye

Welcome to SkyEye, your guide to this month's celestial events.

February 2012

The Calendar

All times and dates are given in Universal Time (UT).
Nightly darkness estimates are calculated for 45° N and 30° S.
Like total solar eclipses, lunar occultation events can be seen only from limited regions on Earth (and sometimes not at all if the occultation takes place during daylight hours). However, the Moon will appear close in the sky to its 'target' for some hours either side of the actual occultation, regardless of where you are.

Date		Event
1	Wed
2	Thu
3	Fri
4	Sat
5	Sun
6	Mon
7	Tue	Mercury at superior conjunction
7	Tue	Full Moon
8	Wed	The Full Moon obliterates viewing of the Alpha Centaurids.
9	Thu
10	Fri
11	Sat	Moon at perigee
12	Sun
13	Mon
14	Tue	Last Quarter Moon
15	Wed
16	Thu
17	Fri
18	Sat
19	Sun	Neptune at conjunction
20	Mon
21	Tue	New Moon
22	Wed
23	Thu
24	Fri
25	Sat
26	Sun
27	Mon	Moon at apogee
28	Tue
29	Wed

Coming up next month...

Mars is at its closest and brightest early next month.

The equinox later in March heralds the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere and of autumn south of the equator.

The Solar System

The word planet is derived from the Greek word for 'wanderer'. Unlike the background stars, planets seem to move around the sky, keeping mostly to a narrow track called the ecliptic, the path of the Sun across the stars. Dwarf planets and small solar-system bodies including comets, are not so constrained, often moving far above or below the ecliptic.

Sun: Capricornus » Aquarius
Mercury: Capricornus » Aquarius » Pisces
The closest planet to the Sun is at superior conjunction on 7 February and thus, unobservable until the end of the month when it reappears in the west just after sunset.
Venus: Aquarius » Pisces
The 'evening star' is particularly high in the western sky for northern hemisphere observers and is getting higher throughout the month. Viewers in southern regions are not so fortunate, however, with Venus much closer to the horizon at sunset and slowly sinking.
Mars: Virgo » Leo
The red planet is on display virtually the entire night, with opposition occuring early next month.
Jupiter: Aries
Dazzling Jupiter commands the evening sky, setting around midnight.
Saturn: Virgo
The ringed planet moves into the evening sky this month.
Uranus: Pisces
Look for Uranus in the west after sunset.
Neptune: Aquarius
A small telescope is usually necessary to view the most distant planet in the solar system but observations are impossible this month because Neptune is at conjunction on 19 February.

The Celestial Sphere

Constellations are patterns of stars in the sky. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recognises 88 different constellations. The brightest stars as seen from the Earth are easy to spot but do you know their proper names? With a set of binoculars you can look for fainter objects such as nebulae and galaxies or some of the closest stars to the Sun.

Descriptions of the sky for observers in both the northern and southern hemispheres are available for the following times this month. Subtract one hour from your local time if summer (daylight savings) time is in effect.

Local Time	Northern Hemisphere	Southern Hemisphere
1730 hours (1830 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
1930 hours (2030 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
2130 hours (2230 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
2330 hours (0030 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0130 hours (0230 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0330 hours (0430 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S
0530 hours (0630 hours summer time)	45° N	30° S

For More Information...

Consult our online glossary for non-technical explanations of many of the astronomical terms used in these pages.
Blue moons, eclipses, the dates of Easter and much more can be found at the Interactive Astronomy Pages.
For more information about the objects and events described in SkyEye, visit these astronomy-related sites.

Credits

Much of this information can be found in this month's issue of your favourite amateur astronomy magazine available in your local bookshop. Another excellent source is the current edition of the Astronomical Calendar by Guy Ottewell and published by the Universal Workshop.

The SkyEye banner features the supernova remnant known as the Crab Nebula. Six light years wide and 6500 light years distant, this expanding nebula is the shattered remains of a star that blew up nearly a thousand years ago. At its heart beats a pulsar, a neutron star which spins at the incredible rate of 30 times per second. The supernova explosion which produced this object was observed in 1054 in China, Japan and Arabia. It was also seen in North America by the Anasazi people who lived in what is now New Mexico and who depicted it in a petroglpyh. This image is a composite assembled from 24 individual exposures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in October 1999, January 2000 and December 2000, and is courtesy of NASA, ESA, Jeff Hester and Allison Loll (Arizona State University). The colours represent different elements which were expelled during the explosion: neutral oxygen (blue), doubly-ionised oxygen (red) and singly-ionised sulphur (green). These elements will find their way into the next generation of stars and planets (and extra-terrestrial life?).