{"id":1905,"date":"2017-02-02T02:48:23","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T02:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/?p=1905"},"modified":"2017-02-02T02:48:23","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T02:48:23","slug":"griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-february-8th-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/2017\/02\/02\/griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-february-8th-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Observatory Sky Report through February 8th, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report<\/p>\n

This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report through February 8th, 2017. Here\u2019s what\u2019s happening in the skies of southern California.<\/p>\n

The moon\u2019s phase waxes from crescent to gibbous through the week ending on the 8th. It is first quarter on Friday evening, the 3rd. The moon is visible for a longer period each successive night, and as a result, the time of moonset advances from 10:27 p.m. on the 3rd to 4:44 a.m. on the 8th.<\/p>\n

Third in brightness in the sky after the sun and moon is the planet Venus, which appears as a blazing bright point in the southwest sky after sunset. Venus is now bright enough to see as a tiny white dot against the blue of the daytime sky. At 2:50 p.m., Venus crosses the meridian and is then 60 degrees above the southern horizon, or two-thirds the distance from the horizon to the zenith, the point directly overhead. By sunset it will have lowered to a position 42 degrees above the southwest horizon. The crescent phase of Venus is visible through nearly any telescope. As the sky darkens, the orange planet Mars appears to the upper left of Venus. Venus sets at 9:00 p.m., followed 20 minutes later by Mars. The moon is close to Venus on the 1st.<\/p>\n

The second brightest planet, Jupiter, in the constellation Virgo the Maiden, appears over the eastern horizon at about 10:30 p.m. It is located 4 degrees north of Virgo\u2019s brightest star, Spica. Jupiter and Spica are highest and in the south just before dawn.<\/p>\n

The ringed planet Saturn, in the constellation Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer appears to the left of the orange star Antares of Scorpius the Scorpion when the dawn begins to light the sky, at 5:20 a.m. Use a telescope to see Saturn\u2019s magnificent ring system, now tilted nearly at its maximum amount towards earth.<\/p>\n

Although it was called the \u201cChristmas Comet\u201d last December, Comet 45P\/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova has rounded the sun and moves into the morning sky where it will be visible again starting on the 4th. It will appear in the constellations Aquila the Eagle, Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer, and Hercules through the 8th. Even though the comet is moving away from the sun, it is at the same time approaching Earth and will come to within 8 million miles of us on the 11th. This should keep the comet\u2019s brightness steady at about magnitude 6, which is bright enough to observe using binoculars throughout the month from a dark sky location, far from urban light pollution. A finder chart is available on The Sky Live<\/a> website.<\/p>\n

Free views of the Sun during the day and of the moon, planets, and other celestial objects at night are available to the public in clear weather through Griffith Observatory\u2019s telescopes from Tuesday through Sunday, before 9:30 p.m. Check our website for the schedule. The next free public star party<\/a> on the grounds of Griffith Observatory, hosted by the Los Angeles Astronomical Society, the Sidewalk Astronomers, and the Planetary Society, will take place between 2:00 and 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 4th.<\/p>\n

Follow the Sky Report on Twitter<\/a> for updates of astronomy and space-related events.<\/p>\n

From Griffith Observatory, I\u2019m Anthony Cook, and I can be reached at griffithobserver@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report through February 8th, 2017. Here\u2019s what\u2019s happening in the skies of southern California. The moon\u2019s phase waxes from crescent to gibbous through the week ending on the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-skyreport"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1906,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905\/revisions\/1906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}