February 2011
Here’s the observation report for December and January.
There weren’t any, observations that is. Weather report was cloudy, rainy, cloudy, hot, humid, cloudy.
Let’s hope things improve and in case they do I’ve got a bit of a bit of a head start for readers for 2011.
The Year at a Glance
There are four PARTIAL Solar eclipses in 2011, only one of which is visible from Australia, Tasmania to be exact. (There is a Total Solar eclipse in Australia late in 2012). Two total LUNAR Eclipses in 2011 will be visible across most of Australia so mark your calendars.
The first occurs on 15 June, totality at 5.22 AM! The second occurs on 10th December (starts on evening of 9th) with totality at 12:06 AM. I’ll supply more information as the year progresses but keep in mind the June eclipse will be twice as dark as the one in December which most of us could not see over the escarpment and will be deep ruby red at totality.
There are a few Comets on the horizon in 2011 but there is no expectation that any will be brighter than naked eye and hunting them down is a task for the purists.
It is a great observing exercise to track them down and record your observations, good for your skills.
Each year we look forward to the possibility of a great naked eye comet coming into our sphere.
Recently, Comet McNaught in January 2007 was a beauty. It’s orbit was so extreme that it will never return.
Lately they seem to be appearing about every decade or so.
Others have been Arend-Roland 1956-7, Ikeya –Seki 1965, Comet Halley 1986, Hale-Bopp 1997 and etc. This image of Comet Schwassman-Wachmann 3 was taken by the author on May 13, 2006.
I used an 80mm refractor at F5 with an ST-7 camera (CCD for astrophotography) for a 20-sec exposure.
The following image is Hale-Bopp and the Andromeda Galaxy (see Deep Sky).
The Planets In February
For most observers planets are our first telescopic target and for the first half of the year our telescopes will regularly be aimed at Saturn. In February, Saturn is rising around 10 PM.
By the end of February it will be 8-30 PM and end of March 6-30 PM.
The rings will appear rather narrow as we only passed through the ring plane last August.
We are now looking at the North side of the rings and they will come more face on throughout the year. Saturn will grace our night skies until about September.
Jupiter will be best placed for observing early in the evening in the western sky.
By the end of January, Jupiter will be setting within an hour of twilight, around 9-30 PM, but is still good value throughout the month. Observing through thicker, heat hazed atmosphere will not deliver a lot of detail but under good conditions moon events such as occultations and eclipses are worth observing. In January there are only four nights out of 31 that do not encompass some Jupiter moon event.
At mag 6 Uranus will not be visible to the naked eye but will be in any binocular field that includes Jupiter and many a low power field of view in your telescope. Between the fourth and the twelfth the planet will appear as a faint greyish-blue disc if you crank up the magnification. Jupiter will be lost to us for awhile as it slips behind the Sun in March.
Venus is currently the brilliant Morning Star, at its greatest elongation of 47° from the Sun and will remain a pre-dawn object until July.
For the deep sky watchers we are now under the influence of the Summer Milky Way with the brilliant constellations of Orion, Canis Major and Cygnus to the north dominating the heavens.
Consult your star charts and have a go at the following while the Moon is waning in the first week of February. Looking to the far northern horizon, this is the best time of year to have a go at finding the wonderful Ring Nebula, M57 in Lyra and also the famed Andromeda Nebula (Galaxy)M31. Try Andromeda with binoculars resting on something steady.
It will be just about naked eye visible and will fill the full field of view as it is 3° across. In Cygnus we can try for the Veil nebula, the North America nebula, the Pelican, the Crescent, the Footprint, the Coccoon and the brilliant asterism known as Brocchi’s Cluster. In nearby Vulpecula look for the Dumbbell Nebula with low power. Clear Skies