{"id":2898,"date":"2022-02-02T07:13:37","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T07:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/?p=2898"},"modified":"2022-02-02T07:13:37","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T07:13:37","slug":"griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-february-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/2022\/02\/02\/griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-february-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Observatory Sky Report through February, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Feb2022_SR.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between February 1 and February 28, 2022. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California.<\/p>\n

Mercury<\/strong> is in the morning sky. Look for the planet low in the east just before sunrise. On the 1st<\/sup>, Mercury rises at 5:38 a.m., PST, and the sun rises at 6:50 a.m., PST. On the 16th<\/sup>, Mercury reaches greatest western elongation. On the 28th<\/sup>, Mercury rises at 5:20 a.m., PST, and the sun rises at 6:23 a.m., PST. Do not observe any planet when it comes close to the sun, for the danger to the eyes is great.<\/p>\n

Venus<\/strong> is in the morning sky, low in the southeast. On the 1st<\/sup>, Venus rises at 4:34 a.m., PST. On the 28th<\/sup>, Venus rises at 3:48 a.m., PST. On that date Venus is a crescent with a width of 32 arcseconds with 38-percent of the disk illuminated.<\/p>\n

Mars<\/strong> is in Sagittarius the Archer.\u00a0 On the 1st<\/sup>, Mars rises at 4:37 a.m., PST, and on the 28th<\/sup> the planet rises at 4:10 a.m., PST. The angular separation between Mars and Venus decreases, until Mars is five degrees south of Venus on the 28th<\/sup>.\u00a0 The disk of Mars is only five arcseconds wide and will not show any surface features through a telescope.<\/p>\n

Jupiter<\/strong> is in the west-southwest as evening starts. On the 1st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 5:24 p.m., PST, and Jupiter sets at 7:17 p.m., PST. By the 15th<\/sup>, Jupiter is close to the sun and unobservable until April. A telescope capable of magnification 50x will show the Red Spot, and the four bright Galilean moons may be seen moving back and forth, roughly in a line centered on Jupiter.<\/p>\n

Saturn<\/strong> is close to the sun as February begins and is unobservable. By the 28th<\/sup>, Saturn rises in the morning sky at 5:26 a.m., PST. Saturn is then low in the east-southeast. The rings and Saturn\u2019s largest moon Titan may be seen with a telescope capable of magnification 50x.<\/p>\n

Uranus<\/strong> is in the constellation of Aries the Ram and is observable during the evening. On the 1st<\/sup>, Uranus sets at 12:20 a.m., PST. On the 28th<\/sup>, the planet sets at 10:37 p.m., PST. On the 15th<\/sup>, Uranus is at Right Ascension 2h<\/sup> 34m<\/sup> 16s<\/sup> with a declination of +14\u00b0 43\u02b9 11\u02ba. Uranus is only 3.5 arcseconds wide, and so a telescope with a magnification of 150x is needed to show its diminutive disk.<\/p>\n

Neptune<\/strong> is in the constellation Aquarius the Water Bearer. On the 1st<\/sup>, Neptune sets at 8:23 p.m., PST. On the 28th<\/sup>, the planet sets at 6:42 p.m., PST, and is close to the sun and unobservable. On the 15th<\/sup>, Neptune is at Right Ascension 23h<\/sup> 31m<\/sup> 01s<\/sup> with a declination of -4\u00b0 20\u02b9 51\u02ba. Neptune is only 2.2 arcseconds wide, and so a telescope with a magnification of 150x is needed to show the disk.<\/p>\n

First quarter occurs on the 8th<\/sup>, full moon on the 16th<\/sup>, and last quarter on the 23rd<\/sup>. Because February is a short month, there is no new moon in February.<\/p>\n

Follow\u00a0All Space Considered<\/a> and\u00a0Griffith Observatory<\/a> on Twitter for updates on astronomy and space-related events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Feb2022_SR.mp3 This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between February 1 and February 28, 2022. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California. Mercury is in the morning … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2898","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\/2898","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2898"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2907,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2898\/revisions\/2907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}