In the Sky This Week – February 26, 2019

This summer’s nationwide library reading program, “A Universe of Stories,” coincides with NASA’s 60^th anniversary, and the 50^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. The Warren Astronomical Society (Michigan) has received multiple requests from libraries for summer speakers, astronomy programs and display case setups – and they’re still coming in! I’ve reached out to other astronomy clubs and volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassadors in southeastern Michigan for help covering all the outreach requests.

If you are looking for speakers for this summer, Solar System Ambassadors in your state, and local astronomy clubs are a great resource. You can find many clubs and events listed on the NASA Night Sky Network site.

[show_if device=’desktop’]Observing Target | The Moon | The Sun | Asteroids | Fireballs | Comets | Solar System | Spacecraft | Exoplanets | The Universe 

Venus and Saturn continue to spread apart this week, and the waning crescent Moon appears very near several planets in the southeastern predawn sky.

Conjunctions in the south-southeastern predawn sky from Feb. 26-Mar. 2, 2019. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Mercury can be seen very low in the western sky at dusk this week.

Mercury low in the western sky at dusk on Feb. 26th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Mars and Uranus are high in the west-southwestern sky before midnight; Mars will be slowly moving away from Uranus all month.

Mars and Uranus high in the west-southwestern sky before midnight on Feb. 26th. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

Orion and Taurus can be seen setting in the west shortly after midnight this week.

Orion and Taurus set in the west shortly after midnight this week. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

M44 – The Beehive Cluster

The Beehive Cluster (also known as Praesepe (Latin for “manger”), M44, NGC 2632, or Cr 189), is an open cluster in the constellation Cancer. It is one of the nearest open clusters to Earth, containing a larger population of stars than other nearby bright open clusters. Under dark skies, the Beehive Cluster looks like a small nebulous object to the naked eye; as known since ancient times. Classical astronomer Ptolemy described it as “nebulous mass in the breast of Cancer”, and it was among the first objects that Galileo studied with his telescope. – Wikipedia

M44 – the Beehive Cluster. Credit: Intihuatana / CC BY-SA 4.0

Location of M44 – The Beehive Cluster. Credit: Stellarium / Bob Trembley.

The Moon will be at third-quarter on Feb. 26^th – rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise. The rest of the week, the Moon will be a waning crescent – low to the east before sunrise. My wife and I caught a beautiful view of the third-quarter Moon this morning out our living room window.

The Moon from Feb. 19-25, 2019. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

The Sun has been spot-free for 26 days – almost a month! Large coronal holes remain open at both poles, and an irregularly shaped coronal hole along the equator has solar wind pouring out of it.

SpaceWeather.com says: “NOAA forecasters say there is a 50% chance of minor G1-class geomagnetic storms on Feb. 27th when a fast-moving stream of solar wind is expected to hit Earth’s magnetic field. The gaseous material is flowing from a large hole in the sun’s atmosphere, now facing our planet.”

Solar astronomers have had a treat for the last several days, with prominences galore and a beautiful loop on the lower right limb!

The solar wind speed is 323.6 km/sec (↓), with a density of 5.9 protons/cm³ (↑).

Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun’s limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Some interesting news from our solar observing fleet:

Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:

Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Table from SpaceWeather.com

On Feb. 25, 2019, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 14 fireballs.
(14 sporadics)

In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits from Feb. 25, 2019 intersect at a single point–Earth. Source: Spaceweather.com

This is the position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the solar system.

OSIRIS-REx – Student-Built Spectrometer Makes Observations

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter – Attempt No Landings Here

Here’s a video scroll over of this incredibly rough terrain on Mars:

Hayabusa2 – Takes Sample of Asteroid Ryugu

NASA Climate

-Data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive

Exoplanet Artwork by Bob Trembley

On a moon of ringed gas giant planet within a globular cluster. Credit: Space Engine / Bob Trembley.

I mentioned last week that I’m creating several posters for an Astronomy Night event to be held at my wife’s school in March;  I found this super hi-rez image of the “Big Dipper” region of Ursa Major – I imagine this will look amazing printed 3’x7′!

24 pane mosaic image of the “Big Dipper” in Ursa Major. Credit: Rogelio Bernal Andreo

Apps used for this post:

NASA Eyes on the Solar System: an immersive 3D solar system and space mission simulator – free for the PC /MAC.
I maintain the unofficial NASA Eyes Facebook page.
Stellarium: a free open source planetarium app for PC/MAC/Linux. It’s a great tool for planning observing sessions.
Space Engine: a free 3D Universe Simulator for the PC.

Section header image credits:
The Sky – Stellarium/ Bob Trembley
Observing Target – Turn Left at Orion / M. Skirvin
The Moon – NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Sun – NASA/JPL-Caltech
Asteroids – NASA/JPL-Caltech
Fireballs – Credited to YouTube
Comets –Comet P/Halley, March 8, 1986, W. Liller
The Solar System – NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Spacecraft News – NASA Eyes on the Solar System / Bob Trembley
Exoplanets – Space Engine / Bob Trembley
The Universe – Universe Today

July 20, 2019 is the 50^th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon.