The highlight of February is on the 18th and 19th when the planet Mercury is at its highest in the west after sunset.
The Romans named the planet after the swift Roman messenger god, Mercury, because it moves across the sky faster than any other planet. It takes 88 days to orbit the sun. Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system but has one of the largest temperature ranges; between a day high of 790 F degrees and a night low of -270 F degrees. That’s over a 1,000 degree difference from day to night!
February 1st brings the full moon known as the Snow Moon. A fitting name because currently much of North America is pummeled by snow during this time of the year. February is often the snowiest month for the Northeast and Midwest. This sure makes us appreciate living in Southern California!
NASA is planning a manned rocket launch on February 6 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Artemis II rocket will carry four astronauts on a 10-day test flight around the Moon and back to Earth. This flight will go farther than any manned rocket in history. The three men and one woman astronauts have been in quarantine since January 23 to prepare for this mission. The goal is to set up for a Moon landing with Artemis III’s astronauts, who are not yet named.
The next relatively bright comet visible from Earth is C/2024 E1. Around February 17, look in the west with binoculars to see if you can spot it. A comet’s center is made of ice but isn’t like frozen water. A comet’s ice is super cold methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide. Comets lose mass each time they get close to the sun. After many years of circling the sun, a comet will eventually break apart. The most famous is Halley’s Comet which visited us in 1985 and is estimated to appear again in July of 2061.
On February 27 (my wife’s birthday) look up to see the Moon and Jupiter appearing to be near each other. Jupiter is a brilliant point of light in the east. It is the fifth planet from the sun and the most massive one in our solar system. If Earth was the size of a grape, then Jupiter would be a basketball.
This gas giant has 79 known moons and the four biggest can been seen with binoculars – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Jupiter is the third brightest object in the sky after Venus and our Moon and can be easily seen with the naked eye.
If you are planning a trip to Europe this summer, there will be a total solar eclipse starting in Greenland and traveling south through Portugal and Spain. It will be the first time in 27 years since a total solar eclipse happened in Europe.
Looking ahead, there will be a total lunar eclipse on March 2. A total lunar eclipse takes place when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon and its shadow covers the Moon. Eclipse watchers can see the Moon turn red when the eclipse reaches totality between 3:04 and 3:33 am on March 3. This is known as a “Blood Moon.”
On Saturday, February 21, the Griffith Observatory will be hosting a FREE public star party from 2 to 9:45 pm. There will be a chance for the whole family to look at the Sun, Moon, visible planets, and other objects, to try out a variety of telescopes, and to talk to knowledgeable amateur astronomers about the sky and their equipment.
When not stargazing, Neill Simmons is an Investment Executive with LPL Financial in the San Fernando Valley. If you have any
