What is happening in the skies this February?

Being able to find the planets can prove difficult when you are first starting out and are unfamiliar with the sky. However, the Moon is very obvious, and so can be used as a guide to locate the planets. As the moon transitions from full to new moon over approximately 14.5 days it is said to be waning and as it progresses from new moon to full then it is waxing. The whole cycle takes approximately 29 days.

On the evening of February 11, the waning Moon will be three finger widths away from the planet Saturn. Saturn has a distinctly yellow colour making it easy to spot – it rises before 10pm and at midnight is between 3 and 4 hand spans from the eastern horizon at midnight. Then on the morning of February 23 the thin crescent moon will be very close to Jupiter, Mercury and Mars.

Let us look at Mercury, one of the planets that you can see this month and over the next few of weeks we will discuss each of the planets that are easily visible in small telescopes as they were to Galileo.

Mercury is nice and easy to see in the morning skies this month. It is the planet closest to the Sun, a very small planet, only slightly larger than our Moon, with its "day" being nearly as long as its "year" of 88 earth days.

Because of its proximity to the Sun it has always been hard to see. It can only be seen for less than two hours before sunrise, or less than two hours after sunset. For this reason ancient astronomers believed that Mercury was actually two distinct planets. Mercury was the name they gave to planet seen in the early evenings, while Apollo was the name given to it when seen in the early morning. The Romans called this planet after Mercury, the wing-footed messenger of the gods, because it moved so fast through the sky.

The planet Mercury is literally a ball bearing of iron, with a thin layer of surface rock. About 80% of the diameter of the whole planet is taken up by its core of metallic iron. A strange fact that no one completely understands is that Mercury appears to be linked to the Earth. Every time Mercury reaches its closest distance to us, which occurs every 117 days, it always shows the same face to us.

February is the also best time to view Mercury in the mornings this year. On the 15th, it is two hand spans above the eastern horizon an hour before sunrise, with Mars and Jupiter just above the horizon below it. By the 28th, it will be just under two hand spans above the eastern horizon, and hour before sunrise. Mercury is accompanied by Mars and Jupiter for most of the month, but within this general planetary association Mercury has several interesting encounters. On February 23, the crescent Moon will be quite close to Mercury, with Jupiter and Mars close by. On February 25, Jupiter and Mercury are less than a finger width apart, with Mars below making a nice compact cluster.

Remember – The Universe – it is Yours to Discover!