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Month´s Sky - February
Constellations
Deep Sky Objects
This month we are going to the Plaza de la Constitución in Mexico city
Here, luminous pollution only allows us to see the Moon and the Brighest star in the night sky
However, from this place we can distinguish February constellations
And discover the most significant deep sky objects
thanks to the magic of the stellar simulation, which will allow us to turn off lights the city
so that the cellestial mantle may fall upon us
February still shows the best sky of the year
with the spectacular winter constellations flying over our heads
Lift up your eyes to the zenit and, at a glance,
you will easily find various constellations
thanks to the bright stars that make up their asterisms
Gemini, "the twins", is very high in the sky
Its brightest stars, Castor and Pollux,
will allow us to recognize the asterism from head to toe
Castor, located fifty light years away from us
is shown to telescope as a double star
However, each of them forms another double system
Actually, the multiple system consists of six stars
as orbiting them we can discover a binary system of red dwarfs that orbits the set
Descending from Castor over "the body of the twin", we will find Mebsuta, Gemini´s Epsilon
Located near is the open cluster NGC 2266
formed by stars in an advanced evolutionary phase
To find it will guide ourselves by four bright stars forming an arc along the cluster
If we continue down to the foot of the twin, we will reach the star Eta of Gemini
from where we will very easily locate the open cluster M 35
with binoculars you can get to count up to twelve stars
however with the telescope over three hundred can be seen
Drawing a line between the stars Kappa and Lambda, halfway through we will find NGC 2392
the Eskimo Nebula, showing its characteristic shape with 200 millimeter telescopes
This image shows in detail the layers of gas of this planetary nebula
coming from the death of a star similar to the Sun in its red giant phase
The process began only ten thousand years ago
From Pollux we will draw a line to the star Beta in the constellation of Cancer, the Crab
A third away from the latter, the star Zeta Cancri
also known as Tegmine
A double star system throw 70 mm lens telescopes
that is shown triple if we look two hundred millimeters
This vision is a challenge for amateurs
but worth it, as the color contrast is very beautiful
Between the stars Delta and Gamma of Cancer is easy to see the known stellar open cluster M 44
also known as "The Beehive"
An agglomeration of over eighty stars that already six hundred million years old
Between the stars alpha and Beta of this constellation
we can draw an imaginary line that will help us locate, very close to the alpha
the cluster M 67
Located two thousand and five hundred light years away, its more than five hundred stars are one of the cluster in the Universe
born 4600 million years ago
At dusk you can see, not very high in the sky
the star whose brigtness prevails over all the others that fill the evening sky of this planet
That is Sirius
which shines with a very white light
However, in the past was seen with a reddish hue
apparently due to the presence of his companion Sirius B, a white dwarf now
Thousands of years ago was a huge red bubble of gas, come from the collapse of a red giant
Just 8 light years away, to the ancients observers from Earthit might have seemed
that the brilliant Sirius A glowed with the color of fire
Sirius A
an middle sized white star belonging to the constellation Canis Major
"Big Dog", is visible even in daylight
Many civilizations before ours looked at the helicoidal rising of Sirius
when Sirius rises in the eastern horizon 60 seconds before the Sun
to developed their own calendars which identified the crops
and the ancient Egyptians
to anticipate the desired annual flooding of the Nile river
If we move just 4 degrees south of Sirius an area equivalent to the lunar disk appears
occupied by the M 41 star formation
a beautiful open cluster formed by stars of dofferent colors
that are visible to the naked eye in dark skies
About 8 degrees northeast of Sirius we observe with some difficulty clud with oval shape
this is the nebula NGC 2359, also called "the Helmet of Thor", The Viking
a breeding ground for stars whose cosmic bubble in the shape of a hull is created by the stellar wind from the massive star
that is in the center of the bubble, and that sweeps around the molecular cloud
The high position that the circumpolar constellation Ursa Major
Or "Big Dipper"
reaches this month, will allow us the observation of a pair of galaxies, a spectacular view through simple binoculars
these are the known as M 81 and M 82
They can located very easily parting from the star Dhube and jumping to the "23 Ursa Majoris"
From there we descend only 6 degrees and in the field of view of the binoculars
two diffuse clouds will appear; they will become a wonderful pair of galaxies through a telescope
Both are about 12 million light years away from as
and there is a strong gravitational interaction between the two
especially every 100 million years, when they are closer together
What we see is a gravitational fight
that will end, within billions of years
with the formation of a new giant galaxy
Six degrees east of the star Mizar, with magnitude 9 and visible in dark skies with binoculars
the Galaxy M 101 or "Pinwheel Galaxy"
shown full front before us
that will allow us detailed observation of the peculiar arms of this type of spiral galaxies
when use large aperture telescopes
Do not miss the vision offered by the Universe in such a majestic clumping of matter!
Astronomical Events. February 2014
Lunar phases
Black Moon´s Month: without New Moon
On day 1, after the sunset in the West horizon
we can easily see Mercury
as it will be very close to the Moon
both will be placed over Aquarius constellation
Day 7, Moon will pass very close to the Pleiades open star cluster
A good opportunity to see with simple binoculars this celestial show
On the 11th the Moon will appear next to the gas giant Jupiter
whose brightness highlight on the stars invading the sky
It will transit from East to West with Gemini constellation
On the 15th, before sunrise, you will observe the maximum brightness of Venus
You will be surprised, when looking through a telescope that Venus will be in phase
ie, the maximum luminous intensity of this planet will be with only twenty five percent of the disk iluminate
Distance between Venus and Earth is responsible that we see a larger size of the planet now
so the light that reflects from the Sun is more intensely
By contrast, when the disk is fully lit in October
the distance will be almost five times higher than now
so its brightness will be twenty five times smaller
Before dawn, the Moon, in its journey across the sky from East to West
20th will go approaching to Mars, in Virgo constellation
Its brightness will increase as days advance
Following day will closely approximate to Saturn
which will hide to the Lord of Rings, although we can not see it
On the 26th, the Moon will appear very close to Venus
and now it will be possible to observe the spectacular occultation
from same places in Africa and Asia
Contemplate the stillness of the sky over your head
and discover the motion of the Earth... ...under your feet.