Minnesota Starwatch

University of Minnesota

Department of Astronomy

Minnesota Starwatch for February 2004
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Starwatch Newsletter

Minnesota Starwatch is a newsletter describing the night sky in the Midwest.

It is updated monthly, and is produced by the
Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota
116 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Minnesota Starwatch for February 2004

This month we see Venus in the west after sunset, getting brighter and moving higher in the sky night after night through the month. A bit higher in the southwest is Mars, not as bright as Venus now as it moves further away from the earth after its close approach last August. There are still a lot of eyes and big ears following Mars, though, as NASA's rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, send back pictures and analysis of the surface of the red planet.

Further around toward the south, and high in the sky, Orion the hunter is the bright constellation that's hard to miss. Looking south toward Orion in the evening, Taurus the bull is the wedge of bright stars to the right and even higher in the sky, while Canis Major, the big dog, is down and to the left (southeast). Canis Major is a small constellation, but it's easy to spot because it contains Sirius, the brightest star in the sky after the sun. Above and to the left (east) of Orion is Gemini, the twins. The brighter object in Gemini is Saturn, which moves very slowly through the constellation as the month passes. Below Gemini toward the south-east horizon to the left of Sirius is Canis Minor, the small dog, with its bright star, Procyon. Together these constellations contain many bright stars, making February a great time to learn some constellations if you can get to a dark site with a clear horizon.

If we could see further south, beyond Orion and Canis Major below the horizon in Minnesota, we could see the brightest and most interesting part of the Milky Way galaxy. If we stood in the southern hemisphere, our eyes would pass south from Sirius to Canopus, the second brightest star, and follow the spectacular inner Milky Way to alpha Centauri, the fourth brightest and closest star in the sky. These last two never rise for us in Minnesota, but if you ever get a chance to travel south of the equator, be sure to take along a sky chart so that you can see these beautiful stars and their constellations. Near Canopus are the Magellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. These two small galaxies orbit the Milky Way, and some astronomers predict that one or both may spiral in and eventually merge with our Galaxy. But don't worry, that will take billions of years to happen !

Friday night telescope viewing at the U's Astronomy Department begins at 8pm. Please call (612) 626-0034 for more information.

Minnesota Starwatch is available on-line at http://www.astro.umn.edu

For fun Astronomy Outreach programs'check out our Public Outreach link, or if your interested in how you can help build the new Minnesota Planetarium, please call 612-630-6151 or visit http://www.mplanetarium.org.

Como Planetarium is offering fun family shows about astronomy on a limited basis; please call 651-293-5398 for more info! This has been Minnesota Starwatch, produced by the University of Minnesota Astronomy Department.