Hoping for friendly skies to help make February fabulous

Brutal weather in January! I didn’t get out under the sky much in January because it was just too cold and, for an elder person such as myself, perhaps a bit dangerous to go out in such cold.

February may be much the same but I am hoping a bit warmer. This is winter and we just must deal with it best we can. This is the low point for all but the bravest of amateur astronomers and even they have to be able to see the sky at all!

Let’s assume there will be a few clear nights in February. We intrepid sky watchers, bundled up so that if we fell over, we might not be able to get up, go out to have a look. What might we see?

First of all, winter can present some of the best sunsets to be seen. We will make the transition to Daylight Saving Time in March, but for February, the Sun still sets early and if there has been a storm, now subsided, there may well be a great sunset to the west! I have often photographed these sunsets but I have seen so many great ones from Siloam Springs, I just stand and watch now, awestruck by what water vapor, dust, and a setting Sun can do.

If you wish to see a naked-eye planet, these can only be seen before dawn, low in the southeast. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all visible as dawn comes on but the best views will be in the spring and summer. July through September, Mars will be as large in the sky as it has been since 2003 because Earth and Mars will be about as close as they get. They will have approximately 35 million miles between them.

But alas … no easily seen planets in February. But … Orion the Hunter will be at his best directly south in the night sky. The Seven Sisters, will be overhead, a beautiful little group of blue stars, clustered together and wonderfully seen in binoculars.

Speaking of binoculars, be certain to look at Orion’s “sword” with binos. It will be strangely indistinct because the middle ‘star,’ as seen with the nakedeye, will look star-like but in good binoculars, the sword is a fuzzy, nebulous object, distinctly not starlike. That is because this object is an enormous cloud of gas, mostly hydrogen, and dust. Several stars are within this cloud and they make the gases fluoresce, much like a black light will make certain minerals glow in a dark cave. However, this cloud is about 1,500 light years away and about 50 to 80 light years across! With the Hubble Space Telescope, orbiting the Earth and outside its atmosphere, scientists have been able to image new stars forming in M42 and the rings of dust around them that scientists think will someday form new planetary systems around these stars. For fun, use your browser to find M42. This is the catalog designation of this object and there should be some great photos of this object, taken with large telescopes. I personally never get tired of looking at this cloud of gas, dust and stars: it always stimulates my imagination!

I am sure you all know that the Earth spins on its axis once in about 24 hours. However, you can confirm this very easily should you wish. Find a bright star near some fixed object, say a house roof, a tree or a barn. Note the time. Note where you are standing so you can find this spot easily in the dark. Whatever else you might do, come back to your original spot in about an hour, and find the star again. The star will appear to have moved relative to the fixed object you selected. Is the sky turning or is the Earth turning? It is the Earth that is turning on its axis. The Sun and the Moon do not rise or set—the Earth turns under them. The eastern horizon is actually ‘falling’ and the western horizon is actually ‘rising.’ By the way, before humans had a modern notion about the Earth’s rotation, we did think the Sun rose and set, as well as the stars and planets. This way of describing the phenomena still works perfectly well, even if it is inaccurate.

In winter, even when it is cold but clear, you can see some of the darkest skies you can see all year. This allows you to see farther into the universe than you can see at any other time. It can also be very silent— a good time to contemplate the vast universe and your place in it.