{"id":2957,"date":"2023-02-01T07:53:54","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T07:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/?p=2957"},"modified":"2023-02-01T07:53:54","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T07:53:54","slug":"griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-february-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/2023\/02\/01\/griffith-observatory-sky-report-through-february-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Griffith Observatory Sky Report through February<\/strong>, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/strong><\/a>LISTEN to this week\u2019s Sky Report<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/FEB_2023_Sky_Report.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between February 1 and February 28, 2023. Here are the events happening in the sky of southern California.<\/p>\n

Mercury<\/strong> is in the morning sky. On the 1st<\/sup>, the planet rises at 5:23 a.m., PST, and the sun rises at 6:50 a.m., PST, 87 minutes later. The planet is 66-percent illuminated, in a gibbous phase, and 6.5 arcseconds wide. Mercury remains in the morning sky, but on the 28th<\/sup>, the planet rises at 5:55 a.m., PST, and the sun rises 6:23 a.m., PST, 28 minutes later. A magnification of 150x is needed to see such a small disk. 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 evening sky, low in the southwest. On the 1st<\/sup>, the sun sets at 5:23 p.m., PST, and Venus sets at 7:19 p.m., PST. The planet is 91-percent illuminated and 11 arcseconds wide. On the 28th<\/sup>, the sun sets at 5:49 p.m., PST, and Venus sets at 8:12 p.m., PST. The planet is 86-percent illuminated and 12 arcseconds wide.<\/p>\n

Mars<\/strong> is in Taurus the Bull and is high overhead towards the east. On the 1st<\/sup> Mars sets at 2:57 a.m., PST, and is 92-percent illuminated and 11 arcseconds wide. On the 28th<\/sup>, Mars sets at 1:50 a.m., PST, and presents a disk 90-percent illuminated and 8.2 arcseconds wide.<\/p>\n

Jupiter<\/strong> transitions from Aquarius the Water Bearer to Cetus the Whale and then enters Pisces the Fishes. The planet is in the southwest. On the 1st<\/sup>, Jupiter sets at 9:36 p.m., PST, and on the 28th<\/sup>, Jupiter sets at 8:17 p.m., PST. Jupiter is 35 arcseconds wide and nearly fully illuminated. A magnification of 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 low in the southwest and ending its appearance in the evening sky. On the 1st<\/sup>, Saturn sets at 6:24 p.m., PST, one hour after the sun sets. By the 7th<\/sup>, Saturn sets half an hour after the sun sets and is close to the sun and unobservable until next month, when it appears in the morning sky.\u00a0 A magnification of 50x is needed to see the rings and Saturn\u2019s largest moon Titan.<\/p>\n

Uranus<\/strong> is in the constellation of Aries the Ram and is observable most of the night. On the 1st<\/sup>, Uranus sets at 12:46 a.m., PST. On the 28th<\/sup>, the planet sets at 10:59 p.m., PST. On the 15th<\/sup>, Uranus is at Right Ascension 2h<\/sup> 51m<\/sup> 15s<\/sup> with a declination of +16\u00b0 3\u02b9 47\u02ba. Uranus is only 3.5 arcseconds wide, and a magnification of 150x is needed to show its diminutive disk.<\/p>\n

Neptune<\/strong> is in the constellation Aquarius the Water Bearer and may be observed during early evening. On the 1st<\/sup>, Neptune sets at 8:36 p.m., PST. On the 28th<\/sup>, the planet sets at 6:55 p.m., PST, an hour after the sun sets. On the 15th<\/sup>, Neptune is at Right Ascension 23h<\/sup> 40m<\/sup> 1s<\/sup> with a declination of -3\u00b0 26\u02b9 14\u02ba. Neptune is only 2.2 arcseconds wide, and so a magnification of 150x is needed to see its disk.<\/p>\n

Full moon occurs on the 5th<\/sup>, last quarter on the 13th<\/sup>, new moon on the 19th<\/sup>, and first quarter on the 27th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

SPECIAL EVENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Venus and Neptune<\/strong> approach each other on the 14th<\/sup>. This type of event between two or more objects is called a conjunction. On the 14th<\/sup> at 6:00 p.m., PST, Venus will be 30 arcminutes or 1,800 arcseconds from Neptune. That is as close as they will be seen from Griffith Observatory.<\/p>\n

Venus and Jupiter<\/strong> approach each other from February 28 to March 2. On the 28th<\/sup>, the separation is one degree 29 arcminutes.\u00a0 On the 1st<\/sup>, the separation diminishes to 38 arcminutes.\u00a0 On the 2nd<\/sup> the separation is 46 arcminutes.<\/p>\n

Follow All Space Considered and Griffith Observatory on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and 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\/2023\/02\/FEB_2023_Sky_Report.mp3 This is the Griffith Observatory Sky Report for the period between February 1 and February 28, 2023. 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-2957","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\/2957","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=2957"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2960,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957\/revisions\/2960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.griffithmedia.org\/skyreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}