The Sky over Berlin

February 2010

Index: Links to Astronomy...

Overview Events
The Starry Sky in February
Sunrise and Sunset
The Phases of the Moon
The Planets
Moon at the Pleiades
Vesta at Opposition

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Overview

The Starry Sky in February

The Starry Sky in StarryNight

Sunrise and Sunset

...with astronomical dusk/dawn at 52°31'30" North and 13°18'45" East at 3m above sealevel (StarryNight 2.0)

Dawn 1.: 05:50     11.: 05:35    21.: 05:16 (MET)

Rise 1.: 07:50    11.: 07:33    21.: 07:13 (MET)

Set 1.: 16:50    11.: 17:09    21.: 17:28 (MET)

Night 1.: 18:51    11.: 19:07    21.: 19:25 (MET)

The Phases of the Moon

6.: 0:48

14.: 3:51

22.: 1:42

28.: 17:38 (MET)

The Planets

invisible at the morning sky in Sagittarius/Capricornus/Aquarius

invisible at the evening sky in Capricornus/Aquarius

visible at the nightly sky in Cancer

invisible at the evening sky in Aquarius

visible at the nightly sky in Virgo

in the 1st half of the month still visible at the evening sky in Pisces

invisible at the daylight sky in Capricornus

visible at the morning sky in Sagittarius

Illustrations: StarryNight 2.0 & -- jd --

Events

6.-9.2.2010: Alpha-Aurigids visible (weak, slow)*
13.2.2010 13h MET: Mercury at aphelion (far from Sun, distance Mercury-Sun 0.468 a.u.)
14.2.2010: Chinese New Year (Year of the Tiger)
15.2.2010 0h MET: Neptune at conjunction with the Sun
16.2.2010 18h MET: Venus 0.7 deg. South of Jupiter
18.2.2010: Vesta at opposition to the Sun (see below)
21.2.2010 21h MET: Moon 0.7 deg. South of M45 (see below)
25.2.2010: Delta-Leonids maximum (visible February 15 - March 10, weak, V=25km/s (slow))
26.2.2010 3h MET: Moon 5.9 deg. South of Mars (see prev. month)
28.2.2010 12h MET: Jupiter at conjunction with the Sun

4.2.2010: 15th anniversary of the start of STS-63 Discovery with Spacehab 3 (NASA)
9.2.2010: 20th anniversary of the Venus flyby of the Jupiter probe Galileo (NASA)
11.2.2010: 360th day of the death of Descartes; 10th anniversary of the start of STS-99 Endeavor, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (NASA)
16.2.2010: 410th day of death of Giordano Bruno
18.2.2010: 80th anniversary of the discovery of Pluto by Clyde Tombaugh
23.2.2010: 155th day of the death of Gauss
28.2.2010: 20th anniversary of the start of STS-36 Atlantis, 6th DoD Mission (NASA)

Source of the Celestial Events:: Hans-Ulrich Keller (ed.), Kosmos-Himmelsjahr 2010, Frankh-Kosmos 2009

Vesta at Opposition

Vesta is an asteroid of the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, which was discovered as the 4th asteroid by Heinrich Olbers in 1807. With a mean diameter of 516 kilometer it is the third biggest asteroid after Ceres and Pallas. Because of its high albedo of 0.423 Vesta is the brightest asteroid of the main belt as seen from Earth. 1995 Vesta was captured for a photo series with the Hubble Space Telescope:

In HST WFPC2:

Vesta photo series, NASA

In this month at the 18th of February Vesta reaches its opposition position to the Sun in the constellation of the Lion. Then it will have a maximum brightness of 6^m.1 magnitues. At that day the asteroid will be somewhat easily to find, because Vesta will be about 0.2 degrees South of the 2^m.0 bright neck star of the Lion, named Algieba resp. gamma Leonis. From Earth Vesta will be 1.415 astronomical units away at opposition.

In StarryNight:

Vesta with path from February until May 2010

After the opposition Vesta will become dimmer again. The small celestial body moves retrograde through Leo and at the end of March, start of April it reaches nearly the 3^m.0 bright head star of the Lion, named Ras Elased Australis resp. epsilon Leonis.

Since September 2007 the NASA probe DAWN is on its way to Vesta, where it is heading for an orbit insertion around the asteroid in July/August 2011 and should collect data there until July 2012.

Moon at the Pleiades

Within the night from February 21 to 22 the Moon passes the open star cluster of the Pleiades (M45):

In StarryNight:

Moon and M45 at February 21, 2010

At 19h MET when the main stars of the Pleiades became visible the Moon has a distance of 0.9 degrees from the star cluster. At 20h the distance has decreased to 0.7 degrees, Until 21h the distance somewhat stays the same. At 22h it will be 0.9 degrees again and at 23h 1.3 degrees. If the night will be clear a look at the Moon with a binocular or telescope might be special. The blue reflection nebular of M45 as shown by many astrophotos and in the animation above won't be visible that way, though.

created: 2009-10-09 from German version
modified: 2009-10-09

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Overview		Events
	The Starry Sky in February Sunrise and Sunset The Phases of the Moon The Planets		Moon at the Pleiades Vesta at Opposition

		1.: 05:50 11.: 05:35 21.: 05:16 (MET)
		1.: 07:50 11.: 07:33 21.: 07:13 (MET)
		1.: 16:50 11.: 17:09 21.: 17:28 (MET)
		1.: 18:51 11.: 19:07 21.: 19:25 (MET)

		invisible at the morning sky in Sagittarius/Capricornus/Aquarius
		invisible at the evening sky in Capricornus/Aquarius
		visible at the nightly sky in Cancer
		invisible at the evening sky in Aquarius
		visible at the nightly sky in Virgo
		in the 1st half of the month still visible at the evening sky in Pisces
		invisible at the daylight sky in Capricornus
		visible at the morning sky in Sagittarius