Keeble Observatory
February 2003 Sky from the Keeble Observatory
As this is written, the world is just beginning to digest the awful
news of the breakup of the Space Shuttle Columbia. The oldest and
heaviest of the shuttle orbiters, Columbia was not the most launched
of the fleet. It recently underwent an 18-month refit and upgrade,
and performed flawlessly on its previous mission to service the
Hubble Space Telescope. It was deemed space worthy, but there have
been troubling suspicions raised about possible damage to the heat-protective
tiles on the left wing, occurring about a minute and a half into
the flight on January 16th. Telemetry showed a rise in temperature
on the left wing and the left side of the fuselage a few minutes
before the craft disintegrated at 200 thousand feet altitude, traveling
at nearly 18 times the speed of sound. The onboard computer was
attempting to compensate for increased aerodynamic drag on that
side of the orbiter. Several investigations are underway to determine
the precise cause . we'll have more to say when their work is completed.
Lunar phases for February: New Moon on the 2nd, and 5:24 pm; First
Quarter on the 10th, at 8:16 am; Full Moon at 5:48 pm on the 18th,
and Last Quarter at 3:34 am on the 25th.
Early risers will still find Venus to the southeast, appearing
as the brightest star in the sky. Mercury will also put in a predawn
appearance as a morning star at the end of the month as it passes
to the west of the Sun. It will be low on the horizon, about halfway
between the Sun and Venus, and probably will not be easy to see
unless you have access to an uncluttered horizon and a complete
absence of low haze. Mars is just to the right of Venus, appearing
a dull red in contrast to the brilliance of Venus.
Evening planet watchers will be treated to nearly all-night view
of Jupiter and Saturn. About two hours after sunset, Saturn will
be almost overhead, with Jupiter about 45 degrees off the eastern
horizon. Binoculars or a small telescope should give a good view
of Saturn's rings, and of Jupiter's four largest satellites. Watching
from night to night, you'll see those Galilean moons shift positions
relative to the planet, confirming Galileo's notion that they were
orbiting Jupiter and not moving around the Earth.
About two hours after sunset, the constellation Auriga is almost
directly at zenith, with its two brightest stars (Capella to the
north, Elnath to the south) aligned with Saturn, which is nestled
this month between the horns of Taurus. Orion is to the south, with
its distinctive belt of three stars dividing a deformed rectangle
of bright stars. Below the belt is the hazy spot of the Orion Nebula,
revealed in a small telescope as a vast cloud of gas and dust, illuminated
by the emerging young cluster known as the Trapezium. Sirius, to
the southeast, rivals the brightness of Venus. High above the eastern
horizon, we find the bright twins, Castor and Pollux, in the constellation
Gemini. That bright star just above the eastern horizon is Regulus,
the heart of the Lion in the constellation Leo. The Milky Way divides
the sky from southeast to northwest. Sweeping along this hazy band
with a pair of binoculars reveals myriad faint stars, which so astonished
Galileo when he first turned his telescope on the sky.
For your own monthly star chart, you can direct your web browser
to http://www.skymaps.com.
You will find extensive descriptions of what's worth looking for,
and you can download and print a single copy for your personal use.
Copyright 2003
George Spagna