CADAS Night Sky 2017- February Moon Phases Sunrise Sunset Venus Set First Quarter 4 th Full Moon 11 th Last Quarter 18 th New Moon 26 th 1 st 7:48am 10 th 7:33am 20 th 7:14am 28 th 6:57am 1 st 5:02pm 10 th 5:18pm 20 th 5:36pm 28 th 5:50pm 1 st 9:18pm 10 th 9:24pm 12 th 9:25pm 20 th 9:21pm 28 th 9:07pm Moon Rise (New- Full) Moon Set (Full- Moon Rise (Full- Moon Set (Full- 1 st 9:54am 2 nd 10:21am 3 rd 10:50am 4 th 11:22am (FQ) 5 th 12:00pm 6 th 12:44pm 7 th 1:37pm 8 th 2:38pm 9 th 3:45pm 10 th 4:56pm - - - - - - - - - - - 26 th 7:00am ( 27 th 7:29am 28 th 7:57am 1 st 10:30pm 2 nd 11:45pm 3 rd No MS 4 th 12:59am (FQ) 5 th 2:14am 6 th 3:25am 7 th 4:32am 8 th 5:31am 9 th 6:22am 10 th 7:04am - - - - - - - - - - - 26 th 5:47pm ( 27 th 7:01pm 28 th 8:16pm 11 th 6:08pm (Full) 12 th 7:19pm 13 th 8:28pm 14 th 9:34pm 15 th 10:40pm 16 th 11:43pm 17 th - No MR 18 th 12:45am(LQ) 19 th 1:45am 20 th 2:43am 21 st 3:38am 22 nd 4:28am 23 rd 5:13am 24 th 5:53am 25 th 6:29am 11 th 7:39am (Full) 12 th 8:09am 13 th 8:36am 14 th 9:01am 15 th 9:25am 16 th 9:49am 17 th 10:15am 18 th 10:43am(LQ) 19 th 11:15am 20 th -11:52am 21 st 12:36pm 22 nd 1:26pm 23 rd 2:23pm 24 th 3:27pm 25 th 4:35pm SpaceX CRS-10 Cargo Mission to the ISS will be launched sometime this month. It will lift off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Expedition 50 Undocking and Landing is due this month from the. NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of the Russian space agency will leave the ISS in their Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft and land in
Kazakhstan. Comet C/2016 U1 NEOWISE is now in the constellation of Sagittarius and will only be visible from the southern hemisphere. Mercury is a morning object all month and to near the Sun for observing. On the 1 st at 6:00pm in the SW the Moon, Mars and Venus are in a straight line. It's approximately 13 degrees that seperates the Moon from Venus. On the 1 st Uranus is 8 degrees to the upper left of the Moon. At 6:00pm on the 2 nd, Uranus is 6½ degrees to the right of the Moon. On the 2 nd at 10:30pm the asteroid Ceres is just 3 degrees to the upper left of the Moon. On the evening of the 4 th at 9:00pm the Pleiades star cluster will be 11 degrees above the Moon. Mercury is at aphelion on the 7 th which means its furthest from the Sun in its orbit. On the 11 th Comet 45P Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova is at its closest to the Earth and should be visible with binoculars and hopefully with the naked eye. As with comets they are unpredictable in their brightness. It does get as close as 0.083AU (7,719,000 miles or 12,350,400km approx) so there is a good chance to see it. The chart I will send with this newsletter shows that it is in the Corona Borealis constellation and will be set for the 11 th at 8:00pm. The star in the top righthand corner of the chart is the first star in the handle of The Plough and the bright star halfway down the righthand edge is Arcturus. The comet is moving from from left to right on the chart so you may see it a few days either side of the 11 th. As it is well north in
our skies it should be seen all through the night. Its currently at 6.5magnitude (16 th Jan) just beyond the range of the naked eye. To coincide with Comet 45P, also on the 11 th in the Constellation of Hercules is Comet C/2015 V2 Johnson. A second chart of the sky I will send, showing its location though its not as bright as Comet 45P. Its currently at 11 magnitude (23 rd Jan). A telescope will be required to see it. Its mainly in the constellation of Hercules all month. On the 28 th it will be 1.705 AU from Earth. It reaches perihelion in June. A Penumbral Lunar Eclipse starts at 10:43:16pm on the night of the 10 th and finishes at 2:53:26am on the 11 th. The whole of the Moon enters the penumbral shadow of the Earth near its greatest eclipse which occurs at 12:43:53am. On the northern side of the Moon at around this time you will see a very shaded area, though no clear shadow of the Earth as you would expect to see as like a total eclipse. Its because the main shadow (the Umbra) just misses the Moon this time. Comet 2P Encke is a few degrees away to the upper right from Venus at the beginning of the month. Its in a straight line with Mars and Venus on the 13 th, at around 7:00pm. Its the opposite side of Venus to Mars and around the same distance apart. Its currently at 12 magnitude (23 rd Jan) and it too will need to be viewed by a telescope. It reaches Perihelion next month. There is a planned launch from French Guiana on the 14 th of the Ariane 5 ECA. It will put into orbit Intelsat-32e, Telkom-3S. At 11:00pm on the 14 th in the ESE Jupiter is 8 degrees to the lower left of the Moon. On the 15 th at 6:30am Jupiter is 5 degrees to the left of the Moon in the SW. There is a planned launch on the 15 th from Satish Dhawan, India. On board the PSLV rocket are Cartosat-2D + 102 Secondary
Payloads. At 6:30am on the 16 th, Jupiter will be 6½ degrees to the lower right of the Moon. Jupiter is at aphelion on the 17 th, its most furthest from the Sun in its orbit. Venus is at perihelion on the 20 th, its closest to the Sun in its orbit. On the 20 th at 6:30am, Saturn will be 8½ degrees to the lower left of themoon. At 6:30am on the 21 st, Saturn will be 4½ degrees to the lower right of the crescent Moon. An Annular Solar Eclipse is on the 26 th and will be visible mainly in the Southern Hemisphere. The greatest eclipse occurs at 2:53:24pm. The partial phase starts at 1:15pm and ends at 4:31pm and will be visible only from the lower half of South America, the south western region of Africa and anyone who may be on Antarctica. On the 26 th there is a very close conjunction between Mars and Uranus. At 7:00pm Uranus is just ½ degree to the left of Mars....and on the following day (27 th ) at the same time Uranus will be a miniscule fraction further away and below and to the left of Mars than yesterday. A very thin crescent Moon will be setting low in the west on the evening of the 27 th. The sky should be dark enough to see it from 6:40pm ish. (providing there's no clouds). On the evening of the 28 th in the western sky you will see the thin crescent Moon. Venus is 11 Degrees to the upper right of the Moon with Mars 12 degrees to the upper left of Venus forming a nice triangular shape. Uranus is 1½ degrees below Mars.
There are further launches this month from Kazakhstan and Japan. There is also a test flight of an elctron rocket in the first half of this year from Mahia in New Zealand. News: Images from Japan's Akatsuki spacecraft have revealed a gigantic wave in the atmosphere of Venus, and scientists say it may be the largest such feature in the solar system. The bow-shaped wave ran north-south for 6,000miles (10,000km) and stayed stationary for at least four days in December 2015. Scientists say, that is surprising, because Venus's thick sulfuric acid clouds move with a jet stream at more than 220mph (360kph). It turns out the wave was positioned over Aphrodite Terra, a vast area the size of Africa. Fact: Urbain Le Verrier was a french mathema1cian who specialized in celes1al mechanics and is best known for predic1ng the existence and posi1on of Neptune. There is a statue of him at the Paris Observatory and his name is one of 72 inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. Please Note: I will not put down info on ISS or Iridium Flares in the newsleier as 1mes can vary a lot if put down to far in advance. Though I may send out details if I know it will be clear. A useful site: www.heavens-above.co.uk