Vern’s Weblog

The following is a brief summary of some things to see in the sky this week, Feb 10 to Feb 16, 2008.

International Space Station

Tue Feb 12 at 6:20:28 pm the ISS appears in the NNW and disappears in the NE at 6:23:25 pm (-0.4 magnitude)
Wed Feb 13 at 6:40:29 pm the ISS appears in the NW and disappears in the NE at 6:43:32 pm (-1.4 magnitude)
Thurs Feb 14 at 7:00:44 pm the ISS appears in the NW and disappears in the SE at 7:03:45 pm (magnitude -2.5))
Fri Feb 15 two passes at 5:46:25 pm it appears in the NNW and disappears in the east at 5:51:25 pm (magnitude -1.3)
and at 7:21:27 pm it appears in the WNW and disappears in the SSW at 7:24:070 (magnitude -0.3)
Sat Feb 16 at 6:06:31 it appears in the NW at 6:06:31 pm and disappears in the SE at 6:12:08 (magnitude -2.5)

Sun
For us at 40 degrees north, the sunrises Sunday morning at 7:01 am and sets 5:32 pm. Next Saturday it rises at 6:54 am and sets at 5:39 pm. No regions are currently visible on the Sun’s disk.

Moon
Sun Feb 10 lunation 4 days: Craters Atlas, Hercules, Macrobius and Taruntius
Mon Feb 11 lunation 5 days: Craters Posidonius, Theophilus, and Picollomini. Luna Mara Tranquillatis
Tue Feb 12 lunation 6 days: Crater Aristoteles, Eudoxus, and Maurolycus
Wed Feb 13 lunation 7 days: in first quarter at 8:34 pm mst: Craters Casini, Aristillus, Hipparchus, Albategenius, and Werner. Check out the Montes Alpes and Montes Caucasus.
Thur Feb 14 lunation 8 days: Crater Plato, Archimedes, Alphonsus, Arzachel, and Tycho. Observe Rupes Recta, the straight wall.
Fri Feb 15 lunation 9 days: Craters Copernicus, Bulliardus, Fra Mauro, and Longomontanus.
Sat Feb 16 lunation 10 days: Check out Sinus Iridium, “the Bay of Rainbows” and Montes Jura.

Planets
Mars is up high in constellation Taurus in the early evening. By Saturday it will be 10.3 arc sec and -0.16 magnitude in brightness.
Saturn is in constellation Leo and is visible in the eastern sky as soon as its dark. It is 0.6 magnitude in brightness and the disk is 20 sec across. By 9 pm is it in good position for viewing and imaging.
Jupiter is in constellation Sagittarius and is visible in the eastern sky before sunrise. It is magnitude -1.77 in brightness and 33 arc sec across.
Venus is sinking lower each day. It is just barely visible above the southeastern horizon as the sky brightens before sunrise. It is -3.8 magnitude in brightness and 11.8 arc sec across.

Dark Sky
The moon interfers with our evening dark sky views this week.
Comets
17P Holmes is in constellation Perseus. It is currently 1.5 degrees or so across. It is still easy to spot in binoculars at a dark sky location.
46P Wirtanen is in constellation Aries and is magnitude 9.2 in brightness
29P Schwasmann-Wachmann is in constellation Auriga and is magnitude 11.4 in brightness
C/2008 C1 (Chen-Gao) is in constellation Cassiopeia and is magntiude 12.7 in brightness

This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 10:59 pm and is filed under Astronomy, Sky this Week, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.