EXTANT LIFE ONSOCIETY MARS? THE MARS
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LOOK UP IN WONDER Welcome to the February 2014 astronomy mini magazine. This month John Harper FRAS (President Scarborough and Rydale Astronomical Society) gives us a guide to Febs night sky. We also have a monthly update on news on the ISS by Cian O’Regan Finally.... M 82
IMAGE OPPOSITE: A supernova in M82 named 2014J photographed here by Brian B Ritchie
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February 2014 As the month starts, the Sun lies within the constellation of Capricornus, the Sea Goat, until it crosses the border with Aquarius on the 16th at around 10h, where it remains until the month’s end.
The Moon The moon’s perigee (nearest to the earth) occurs at 19h53 on the 27th, and apogee (furthest from the earth) around 05h11 on the 12th.
First Quarter takes place on the 6th at 19h23 in Aries, 15° below and to the right of the Pleiades star cluster (Seven Sisters).
February’s Full Moon is on the 14th at 23h54 in the constellation of Leo, near the border with Sextans. The star twinkling in the bright moonlight 8° to the upper left of the moon is Regulus the brightest star in Leo. Bright Jupiter is way over to the right, above Orion. Last Quarter moon is on Feb 22nd at 17h16, on the Ophiuchus/Scorpius boundary. At 04h the next day it may be seen low in the SE sky 7° above and to the left of Antares, brightest star in Scorpius.
You will have noticed that February is missing a New Moon, as occurred in 1995, and this scenario won’t happen again until 2033. February is the only calendar month, which can be missing the same moon phase twice. (New, First Q, Full, or Last Q)! Look out for ‘Earthshine’ illuminating the dark hemisphere of the waxing crescent moon from the beginning to the 5th of the month in the early evening sky, and the waning crescent on the 23rd to the end of the month in the early morning sky.
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The Planets Mercury sets two hours after the sun during the first few days of
the month, and this is the best time to look for the planet, low in the SW sky, between 17h30 and 18h00. On the 1st the very thin waxing crescent with earthshine on its dark hemisphere, will be immediately above Mercury by some 7°. So at 18h on the 1st, find the moon in the fading SW twilight, and using binoculars, scan downwards towards the horizon. You then should be able to find this elusive little world, sparkling in the twilight, 4° above the horizon. After this period of visibility the planet moves in towards its inferior conjunction with the sun on the 15th. During the second half of February, the planet moves into the morning sky and rises an hour before the sun on the 28th. There is almost a repeat performance between a thin crescent moon and Mercury on the 27th. This time the waning crescent moon lies 8° slightly to the upper right of Mercury and the twilight is much stronger. At 06h30, both objects are within 10° of the SE horizon and binoculars will be necessary to view both of them satisfactorily. Much further to the right of the moon and slightly higher is the brilliant ‘Morning Star’, the planet Venus.
Throughout February, Venus dominates the morning sky, rising before 06h at the start of the month, and just before 05h at the month’s end. There is an exceptionally beautiful close conjunction between the moon and Venus on the 26th, when at 05h as they are rising in the SE sky, Venus is only 18 minutes of arc above the northern cusp of the waning crescent moon. The whole spectacle is enhanced by earthshine illuminating the lunar night hemisphere. During the next few hours as they continue to gain altitude in the SE sky, the rapid motion of the moon takes the latter away from Venus in an easterly direction, but the pair look beautiful close to each other as morning twilight increases. A binocular view will be quite stunning, with both objects in the same field of view.
Mars may be seen travelling slowly eastwards above Spica, the bright-
est star in Virgo throughout the month. It is interesting to compare the colours of the two objects; the brighter Mars with its reddish tinge and the icy-blue of Spica (alpha Virginis). At around 06h at the beginning of the month, given a clear sky, it is possible to see four bright planets in the morning sky. The four are Venus, 5° above the SE horizon on the Scutum/ Sagittarius border; Saturn, at an altitude of 20° in the south; Mars above Spica in the SSW around 25° in altitude; and finally, Jupiter low in the NW in Gemini, 4° above the horizon there. Overnight on the 18th/19th, the gibbous waning moon, Mars and Spica, produce an interesting triangular formation in the night sky, with Spica at the lower apex of this celestial L O O K U P I N W O N D E R : W W W. I C Y S C I E N C E . C O M
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triangle. By 05h on the 19th, Mars is 5° from Spica, which in turn is 5° to the east of the bright moon. The following night 19th/20th, the eastwards motion of the waning gibbous moon has produced another triangle with Mars at its upper apex. Mars, Spica and the moon in this triangular formation will produce a glorious spectacle at an altitude of 10° in the SE at midnight. Having reached opposition last month, Jupiter continues to shine brightly and steadily all-night, high in the constellation of Gemini, and so further opportunities to see the ever changing patterns of the four Galilean satellites continue throughout the month. On the 11th, the bright waxing gibbous moon may be seen in conjunction with the planet, when the two are separated by some 5°. At 00h, if you draw a line through Jupiter and the moon, and continue that line downwards, you will come across the stars Betelgeuse and Rigel, separated by the three stars of Orion’s ‘belt’. During February, Saturn rises at 02h at the beginning, and at 00h30 by the end of the month. It is therefore only visible during the early hours of the morning till dawn. The ringed planet spends the month travelling slowly eastwards in the constellation of Libra, and is unmistakable as there are no other bright stars in that immediate area. On the morning of the 22nd, the moon almost at last quarter, may be seen rising beneath Saturn at around 02h in the SE sky. At this time, Saturn is 3° to the upper right of the moon. If the sky is clear, at around 21h on the 3rd, you will see the four day old waxing crescent moon with earthshine about 10° above the western horizon, and if you carefully scan just 2° (four moon widths) to the left of the moon and at the same altitude, the greyish green coloured faint star you will see is the planet Uranus. At this time, the moon affords a rare opportunity to help you locate this remote world, discovered by William Herschel in 1781. Both objects are in Pisces, just to the north of the Cetus border.
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Neptune is in conjunction with the sun and lies far beyond it on the 23rd, and is not favourably placed for observation during February.
There are no major meteor showers during the month, and so we expect to see the normal background rate of four noticeable events during each hour of the night.
Constellations visible in the south around midnight, mid-month, are as follows: Cancer, Leo, Hydra,
with its brightest star Alphard (‘the solitary one’), and the faint constellation of Sextans the Sextant, to be found just below Leo’s brightest star Regulus.
All times are GMT
1° is one finger width at arm’s length.
JOHN HARPER FRAS
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ISS Monthly Recap January 2014 It has been an extremely busy start to the new year for the Expedition 38 crew aboard the International Space Station, as they picked up exactly where they left off in the first month of 2014. The month began with the space station crew ringing in the new year by carrying out work on experiments in the unique microgravity found on the ISS. The crew also paid special attention to a series of health checks, in particular eye ex-
aminations. Using the station’s Ocular Health experiment, the six astronauts and cosmonauts collected detailed imagery of each others eyes and any changes that may have taken place. Astronauts who have returned to Earth after spending several months living on the ISS have experienced vision changes upon their return, due to changes in in pressure in the eye itself. The space station’s 57 foot-long robotic arm, Canadarm2, performed a detailed inspection of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on January 2. AMS-02, which launched aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-134, is the most advanced magnetic spectrometer in space, and is being used to gather cosmic particles in an effort to enhance our understanding of the universe.
Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo craft was captured by Canadarm2 L O O K U P I N W O N D E R : W W W. I C Y S C I E N C E . C O M
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The highlight of the activities on the US Segment of the station was the arrival of the Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo craft, which delivered over a tonne of supplies and spare parts to the station. Originally scheduled to launch back in December 2013, the launch of Cygnus had to be delayed due to an unexpected failure in one of the station’s ammonia pump modules, located on the station’s truss, which is responsible for cooling station systems and science on board. This meant that astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rich Mastracchio had to perform two spacewalks(EVAs) in order to remove the faulty pump module and replace it with another. All systems now appear nominal. After a series of further weather delays, Cygnus finally launched from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on January 9. After spending three days performing a series of orbital burns and maneuvers, Cygnus, which is named after former NASA astronaut Gordon Fullerton, and which made its first test flight to the ISS back in October 2012, was captured by Hopkins and Wakata using the station’s Canadarm2 and later berthed to the Earth facing port of the Harmony Node of the International Space Station on January 12. The crew quickly got to work on opening the hatches between the ISS and Cygnus, and began unloading the wide variety of scientific instruments, experiments and cargo shortly after.
One newly arrived investigation will study the decreased effect of antibiotics during spaceflight. Another will examine how different fuel samples burn in microgravity, which could inform future design for spacecraft.
Kotov & Ryazanskiy during EVA on December 27
Cygnus will spend around a month docked to the ISS, before a scheduled unberthing from Harmony and a destructive reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere in February.
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On the Russian segment of the International Space Station, the focus was on the upcoming spacewalk on January 27 by cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy. The duo will attempt to complete the installation of two Earth observational cameras on the exterior of the Zvezda Service Module, a task which had to be postponed due to telemetry issues with the cameras themselves during a recent EVA on December 27. Well that’s all for what happened on the International Space Station this month. Be sure to check out Irish Space Blog for further updates and news regarding the International Space Station. Thank You for reading Irish Space Blog!
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Students and Staff at the University of College London have discovered an exploding star in Messier 82 (M82). It is one of the closest star explosions discovered in 27 years. Already amateur astronomers are photographing the supernova. The discovery happened on the early evening of Jan 21st by Ben Cooke, Tom Wright, Matthew Wilde and Guy Pollack — assisted by astronomer Steve Fossey. You can find M82 or the Cigar galaxy by looking toward the ‘The Plough’ in Ursa Major. Image above: Stellarium. Image below:
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