Out & About July 2017

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This is called a penumbral lunar eclipse, but
isn’t as spectacular as a total lunar eclipse
when the Moon is completely in Earth’s
shadow.
This eclipse starts at 10.34pm on February 10
and finishes at 02.53am on February 11, but
it will be at its dimmest at around 45 minutes
past midnight.
Although there are no major meteor
showers in February, if you are out
and about on a clear, crisp night
keep an eye out for shooting stars.
Generally, these are caused by particles no
bigger than a grain of sand burning up as they
enter the Earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of
70 to 100km.
However, larger particles the size of a pea or
a pebble will occasionally leave a blazing trail
across the sky, lasting a few seconds.
If the shooting star is brighter than the planet
Venus it’s called a fireball; if it’s brighter than
the moon it’s called a bolide.
If you are lucky enough to see one of these,
then make a wish – and report it using the
International Meteor Organisation’s fireball
report form at:
methods/visual-observation/major/report/
If you are an early-riser, or a
very late party-goer, there’s an
opportunity to locate the planets
Jupiter and Saturn in the morning
sky this month.
Look for the waning gibbous
Moon any time after midnight
on February 16.
The bright ‘star’ to the right of it is Jupiter, the
king of the Roman gods, known to the Greeks
as Zeus.
If you have a good pair of binoculars, or a small
telescope, see if you can spot Jupiter’s four
brightest moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede and
Calisto.
They were first observed by the Italian
astronomer Galileo Galilei around January
1610 and are named after three of Zeus’
paramours, and Ganymede, a beautiful youth
who he carried off to be his cup bearer.
Zeus had a penchant for seducing beautiful
young women and employed various strategies
to do so.
He turned himself into a magnificent white bull
to abduct Europa, and turned poor Io into a
heifer to hide her from his jealous wife, Hera.
In other tales, he made love to Leda, wife of
the King of Sparta, in the form of a swan, and
a young princess called Danaë as a shower
of gold.
A slim crescent Moon also points
the way to Saturn in morning sky
at around 6am on February 21.
They will be low down, slightly to the East
of South, so you will need a clear southern
horizon to glimpse them. Saturn will be to the
right, and a little below, the Moon. It will be
fainter than Jupiter, and look like a slightly
golden star.
On February 26, there is
an opportunity to spot the
planet Uranus.
Although it was only discovered by William
Herschel in 1781, it’s bright enough to be seen
with the unaided eye in a dark sky, or with a
pair of 10x50 binoculars.
On February 26, it will be very close to the
planet Mars in the evening sky, just below and
to the left in the same binocular field of view.
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