1. Highlighting the Near and Deep Sky
What’s Up E W
Highlighting the Near and Deep Sky
February , 2019 S

2. General Information Among February’s celestial happenings:
If Punxsutawney Phil will end this cold spell, we’ll all send him Valentines!
It’s a good time to view the false dawn, the quintessential eclipsing binary and a heavenly line up.
You’ll miss the party if you set your clock by a sundial.
Sunset Range: 5:44 p.m. (February 1st) to 6:13 p.m. (February 28th).
End of Astronomical Twilight*: 7:13 p.m. (February 1st) to 7:39 p.m. (February 28th).
* This is “full darkness” – the sun has reached 18° below the horizon. It’s usually dark enough for observing about a half hour before this.

3. Moon Phases
February 2019
Mon., 4th – New Moon (Fri./Sat. observing opportunities Feb. 1st/2nd)
Tue., 12th – First Quarter
Tue., 19th – Full Moon
Tue., 26th – Last Quarter (Fri./Sat. observing opportunities Feb. 22nd/23rd)
Roughly speaking:
First Quarter Moon is highest at sunset and sets at midnight
Full Moon rises at sunset and is in the sky all night
Last (“Third”) Quarter Moon rises at midnight and is highest at dawn
New Moon sets at sunset and is absent from the sky all night

4. Celestial Events February 2019
Sat., 2nd – Groundhog Day (cf. Christian “Candlemas”; Celtic “Imbolc”)
Tues., 5th – Moon at apogee; Earth-radii from Earth (farthest apogee for 2019).
Wed., 6th – Algol (β Persei) at minimum for about 2 hours centered on 8:45 p.m. EST (and on 26th centered on 10:30 p.m.; Period: 2d 20h 48m 56.5s).
Sun., 10th – Moon, Mars and Uranus within 5.7° circle; 66° east of the Sun in evening sky.
Mon., 11th – The Equation of Time is at minutes, with clock time this much ahead of solar time. (Solar noon minutes after clock noon.)
Tues., 19th – Moon at perigee; Earth-radii from Earth (nearest perigee for 2019 and 12% closer than on the 5th).
Thurs., 21st – Zodiacal Light visible for the next two weeks. Look west after sunset for hazy pyramidal glow from horizon up to Gemini along ecliptic.
Thurs., 28th – Antares, Jupiter, the Moon, Saturn and Venus form a nearly 50°–long arc in the SSE in the pre-dawn sky (~ 6:00 a.m.).

5. (~30 min. before full darkness) (~30 min. before full darkness)
February 15th, 9:00 p.m.
(~30 min. before full darkness)
February 15th, 7:00 p.m.
(~30 min. before full darkness)
For tonight, Mar. 19th, 8:30 p.m. is about 30 min. before full darkness.
For tonight, Jan. 21st, 6:30 p.m. is about 30 min. before full darkness.
Algol E W
Moon
Mars
Neptune
Uranus S

6. Stargazers Online

7. Questions
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