{"id":40219,"date":"2023-01-19T11:23:01","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T11:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=40219"},"modified":"2023-01-19T11:23:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T11:23:00","slug":"the-planets-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/2023\/01\/19\/the-planets-17\/","title":{"rendered":"The planets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our <\/span>celestial neighbourhood in February<\/span><\/p>\n\n

PICK OF THE <\/strong>MONTH<\/span><\/h5>\n\n

Jupiter <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

Best time to see:<\/strong> 1 February, from 17:30 UT
Altitude:<\/strong> 34\u00b0
Location:<\/strong> Pisces
Direction: <\/strong>South-southwest
Features:<\/strong> Complex atmosphere, Galilean moons
Recommended equipment:<\/strong> 75mm or larger <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Jupiter, Venus and a thin Moon will appear close to one another at the end of February <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Jupiter is rapidly losing ground to the evening twilight, appearing 29\u00b0 above the southwest horizon under deep twilight conditions at the start of the month, but reaching only 12\u00b0 above the western horizon by the time we reach the end of the month. <\/p>\n\n

Through the eyepiece of a telescope, Jupiter\u2019s low altitude will mean it will be badly affected by seeing. This causes fine detail to wobble and blur, making such detail difficult to see well. On a more encouraging note, Jupiter\u2019s declination is increasing and when next at opposition in early November, it will be able to reach an altitude of 50\u00b0 in a dark sky. <\/p>\n\n

A small telescope will currently show the planet\u2019s disc, two main belts and, for apertures above 100mm, the persistent atmospheric feature known as the Great Red Spot. The four Galilean moons are another amazing sight to watch as their starlike dots appear to dance endlessly around the planet. <\/p>\n\n

As the end of February approaches and we move into the start of March, mag. \u20131.9 Jupiter will appear really close to mag. \u20133.9 Venus, the two planets forming an impressive pair above the western horizon even despite their low altitude. On 28 February, they will appear 1.5\u00b0 apart, a prelude to their closest separation of just 0.6\u00b0 on 1 March. If you have several clear evenings, watching a planetary conjunction involving two bright planets is fascinating. The rapid positional shifts really give you a sense of the threedimensional nature of our Solar System. <\/p>\n\n

On the evening of 22 February, a thin 8%-lit waxing crescent Moon sits south of the imaginary line joining Venus to Jupiter, a particularly striking display and a great scene to photograph if the conditions are clear. <\/p>\n\n

Mercury <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

Best time to see:<\/strong> 1 February, 40 minutes before sunrise
Altitude:<\/strong> 3.3\u00b0 (very low)
Location:<\/strong> Sagittarius
Direction:<\/strong> Southeast <\/p>\n\n

Having reached greatest western elongation on 30 January, Mercury is a low morning object this month. Its altitude before sunrise is dropping and despite being around mag. 0.0 for the first half of February, brightening to \u20130.5 by the end of the month, Mercury is unlikely to be seen. <\/p>\n\n

Venus <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

Best time to see: <\/strong>28 February, 1 hour after sunset
Altitude:<\/strong> 16\u00b0
Location:<\/strong> Pisces
Direction:<\/strong> West-southwest <\/p>\n\n

Evening object setting two hours and 15 minutes after sunset at the start of February. Shining at mag. \u20133.8 on 1 February, if the sky is clear after sunset, it\u2019ll be hard to miss. Very close to Neptune on the evenings of 14 and 15 February. From the UK, the separation on 14 February is 50.2 arcminutes, reducing to 21.8 arcminutes on the 15th. On the evening of 22 February, mag. \u20133.9 Venus sits 7.5\u00b0 from mag. \u20132.0 Jupiter, a slender 8%-lit waxing crescent Moon also joining the party. By the end of the month, its separation from Jupiter reduces to 1.5\u00b0. <\/p>\n\n

Mars <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

Best time to see: <\/strong>1 February, 20:00 UT
Altitude: <\/strong>62\u00b0
Location: <\/strong>Taurus
Direction:<\/strong> South <\/p>\n\n

Mars is moving away from Earth and consequently is dimming and shrinking through the eyepiece. On 1 February, mag. \u20130.2 Mars appears 10 arcseconds across. By 28 February, its magnitude drops to +0.4 and its apparent diameter to 8 arcseconds. It remains in Taurus all month. <\/p>\n\n

Saturn <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

Not visible this month<\/strong>
Saturn is in conjunction with the Sun on 16 February and is not visible this month. <\/p>\n\n

Uranus <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

Best time to see: <\/strong>1 February, from 17:30 UT
Altitude: <\/strong>52\u00b0
Location:<\/strong> Aries
Direction:<\/strong> Just west of south<\/p>\n\n

An evening planet, no longer visible at its highest position under astronomically dark skies. On 1 February, true darkness sees Uranus at an altitude of 52\u00b0, only a fraction below its best, but by the end of the month, its altitude will have dropped to 38\u00b0 before this condition is met. Uranus shines around mag. +5.8 and requires binoculars to see convincingly. The southern limb of the Moon is around 4 arcminutes from Uranus under daylight conditions at 11:45 UT on 25 February. <\/p>\n\n

Neptune <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n

Best time to see: <\/strong>1 February, from 18:50 UT
Altitude:<\/strong> 16\u00b0
Location:<\/strong> Aquarius
Direction:<\/strong> West-southwest <\/p>\n\n

The observing window closes on Neptune this month, the dim planet being just 16\u00b0 up as true darkness falls at the start of February, but unable to be seen against dark skies from 22 February onwards. As Venus rushes towards its close encounter with Jupiter at the end of the month, it will also make a harder-to-see close pass of Neptune, visible on the evenings of 14 and 15 February. <\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

More ONLINE
<\/strong>Print out observing forms for recording planetary events
www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/bonus-content\/RRX0AL4<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

The planets in February<\/h4>\n\n

The phase and relative sizes of the planets this month. Each planet is shown with south at the top, to show its orientation through a telescope<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n
\n\n

Jupiter’s moons: <\/strong>February<\/h4>\n\n

Using a small scope you can spot Jupiter\u2019s biggest moons. Their positions change dramatically over the month, as shown on the diagram. The line by each date represents 00:00 UT. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

PHOTOS: PETE LAWRENCE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our celestial neighbourhood in February<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":40215,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"48","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"48","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_48-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_48-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"February-2023","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"February-2023","purple_external_id":"February-2023-48-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"February-2023-48-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000086561||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000086561||","purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.213","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.skyatnight.213","purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.213","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.skyatnight.213","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"075fab74-0a21-4201-866a-899d6c41c40c","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[14],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/1d044726-796c-4cea-9790-1aa3b0689762.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"5","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/1d044726-796c-4cea-9790-1aa3b0689762.jpg",1388,1137,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/1d044726-796c-4cea-9790-1aa3b0689762-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/1d044726-796c-4cea-9790-1aa3b0689762-300x246.jpg",300,246,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/1d044726-796c-4cea-9790-1aa3b0689762-768x629.jpg",768,629,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/1d044726-796c-4cea-9790-1aa3b0689762-1024x839.jpg",800,655,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/1d044726-796c-4cea-9790-1aa3b0689762.jpg",1388,1137,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2023\/01\/1d044726-796c-4cea-9790-1aa3b0689762.jpg",1388,1137,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Our celestial neighbourhood in February","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40219"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40219"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42000,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40219\/revisions\/42000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}