The waxing crescent Moon appears in the southwestern sky around sunset on Feb. 13th.
The Moon appears low above the west-southwestern horizon at dusk on of Feb. 13th. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.Mars appears high in the southern sky after sunset, near the constellation Taurus and the Pleiades star cluster; the constellations Orion and Canis Major appear to the east of Mars in the southeastern sky.
Mars appears near the constellation Taurus and the Pleiades star cluster, high in the southern sky after sunset. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.The Orion nebula makes a great observing and astrophotography target after sunset till about 1:00 AM.
The Orion Nebula – a starforming region and organic chemical factory. Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project TeamThis week, the bright star Capella appears low above the north-northwestern horizon before dawn.
The star Capella appears low above the north-northwestern horizon before dawn. Credit: Bob Trembley / Stellarium.
The Moon is a waning crescent – visible low to the east before sunrise.
The new Moon occurs on Feb.11th – deep sky astrophotographers rejoice as the Moon will not be visible.
After Feb. 11th, the Moon will be a waxing crescent – visible to the southwest in the early evening.
The Moon from 2021-02-09 – 2021-02-15. Visualizations by Ernie Wright / NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.If you click on the Moon image above, or click this link, you will go to NASA’s Moon Phase and Libration, 2021 page – it will show you what the Moon looks like right now. If you click the image on that page, you will download a high-rez TIFF image annotated with the names of prominent features – helpful for logging your lunar observations!
Moon News
This is pretty cool!!
The Sun has been spot-free for 5 days, but there is a small, as-of-yet unnamed, sunspot rotating into view.
Unnamed Sunspot 2021-02-09. Image courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams.The southern coronal hole is huge, with a large tendril stretching up towards the equator (lower left); a smaller coronal hole is rotating out of view (right). The new sunspot rotating into view shows a lot of coronal loop activity (lower left).
The Sun seen in 193 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) February 8, 2021:
Several long-lived prominences and beautiful prominences around the limb of the Sun over the last couple days. The location of the new sunspot rotating into view appears bright orange (lower left).
The Sun seen in 304 angstroms (extreme ultraviolet) February 8, 2021:
You can view the Sun in near real-time, in multiple frequencies here: SDO-The Sun Now.
You can create your own time-lapse movies of the Sun here: AIA/HMI Browse Data.
You can browse all the SDO images of the Sun from 2010 to the present here: Browse SDO archive.
Solar Activity on Facebook – Run by Volunteer NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador Pamela Shivak
SOLARACTIVITY PICTURE OF THE DAY for Tuesday, February 9th, 2021 goes out to Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau for this beautiful image. Eduardo commented: “Today the sun showed a very interesting prominence and very close to that prominence the appearance of a new active zone (to the left of the image). The sky was very cloudy most of the time, allowing me to take pictures at times when the clouds moved a little. Also the seeing was really very bad. Anyway I was able to rescue this image from all the videos that I captured. To take this photo I used a Skywatcher Esprit 120 telescope with a Daystar chromosphere filter and a ZWO 174MM camera.”Solar Corona
Solar wind speed is 478.1 km/sec, with a density of 5.4 protons/cm3 at 1110 UT.
Near real-time animation of the corona and solar wind from the Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO):
Animated LASCO C2 Coronograph showing the solar corona above the Sun’s limb (the white circle). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech-SOHOSun News: NASA Solar Sail Missions!
Potentially hazardous asteroids: 2037 (last updated June 2, 2020)
Total Minor Planets discovered (NASA): 1,048,326 (+2630)
Total Minor Planets discovered (MPC): 1,026,572 (This value has not been updated in months)
Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
| Asteroid |
Date(UT)
|
Miss Distance
|
Velocity (km/s)
|
Diameter (m)
|
| 2021 CX1 |
2021-Feb-09
|
2.1 LD
|
13.9
|
9
|
| 2021 CX |
2021-Feb-10
|
5 LD
|
8.9
|
9
|
| 2008 DB |
2021-Feb-10
|
13.1 LD
|
6
|
25
|
| 2019 YP5 |
2021-Feb-10
|
8.2 LD
|
13.5
|
123
|
| 2021 CU1 |
2021-Feb-11
|
1.6 LD
|
8.4
|
7
|
| 2021 CH |
2021-Feb-11
|
7.8 LD
|
7.8
|
12
|
| 2021 CO |
2021-Feb-11
|
0.9 LD
|
11.6
|
32
|
| 2021 CL |
2021-Feb-12
|
7.5 LD
|
2.7
|
7
|
| 2021 CA |
2021-Feb-13
|
19.1 LD
|
10.2
|
64
|
| 2021 CV1 |
2021-Feb-13
|
13.4 LD
|
21.4
|
40
|
| 2021 CO1 |
2021-Feb-15
|
5.6 LD
|
16.3
|
34
|
| 2021 CU |
2021-Feb-15
|
4.9 LD
|
4.6
|
18
|
| 2021 BS3 |
2021-Feb-16
|
17.3 LD
|
10.4
|
67
|
| 2021 BM |
2021-Feb-17
|
6 LD
|
2.9
|
31
|
| 2020 CX1 |
2021-Feb-18
|
4.9 LD
|
8.3
|
55
|
| 2021 CM1 |
2021-Feb-18
|
18.2 LD
|
6.4
|
27
|
| 2021 CC2 |
2021-Feb-20
|
16.6 LD
|
4.4
|
95
|
| 2020 BV9 |
2021-Feb-22
|
14.7 LD
|
7.6
|
24
|
| 2020 XU6 |
2021-Feb-22
|
10.7 LD
|
8.4
|
217
|
| 2015 EQ |
2021-Feb-23
|
18 LD
|
10.5
|
21
|
| 2011 DW |
2021-Mar-01
|
13.9 LD
|
13.6
|
89
|
| 2011 EH17 |
2021-Mar-02
|
9.6 LD
|
16.8
|
43
|
| 2016 DV1 |
2021-Mar-02
|
3.9 LD
|
18.4
|
39
|
| 1999 RM45 |
2021-Mar-02
|
7.7 LD
|
20
|
468
|
| 2020 SP |
2021-Mar-03
|
18.4 LD
|
3.9
|
14
|
| 535844 |
2021-Mar-10
|
14.2 LD
|
7.3
|
162
|
| 2020 FM |
2021-Mar-10
|
18.2 LD
|
13.3
|
57
|
| 2011 YW10 |
2021-Mar-12
|
19.8 LD
|
13.2
|
45
|
| 231937 |
2021-Mar-21
|
5.3 LD
|
34.4
|
1024
|
| 2020 GE |
2021-Mar-27
|
12.7 LD
|
1.5
|
8
|
| 2019 GM1 |
2021-Mar-31
|
15.1 LD
|
3.9
|
14
|
| 2015 MB54 |
2021-Apr-06
|
13.6 LD
|
3.7
|
59
|
| 2020 GE1 |
2021-Apr-07
|
12.2 LD
|
4.2
|
14
|
| 2014 FO38 |
2021-Apr-07
|
16.8 LD
|
8.3
|
20
|
Notes: LD means “Lunar Distance.” 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. Red highlighted entries are asteroids that either pass very close, or very large with high relative velocities to the Earth. Table from SpaceWeather.com
Asteroid News
On February 8, 2021, the NASA All Sky Fireball Network reported 6 fireballs!
(6 sporadics)
In this diagram of the inner solar system, all of the fireball orbits intersect at a single point–Earth. The orbits are color-coded by velocity, from slow (red) to fast (blue). Credit: SpaceWeather.comFireball News
If you see a bright meteor or a fireball, please REPORT IT to the American Meteor Society and the International Meteor Organization!
Position of the planets and several spacecraft in the inner solar system:
Position of the planets and a couple spacecraft in the inner solar system, 2021-02-09. Credit: Bob Trembley / NASA Eyes on the Solar System.Position of the planets in the middle solar system:
Position of the planets in the middle solar system, 2021-02-09. Credit: Bob Trembley / NASA Eyes on the Solar System.Position of the planets, dwarf planets and some transneptunian objects in the outer solar system:
