2024, February 1: February’s Celestial Wonders

February 1, 2024: Explore February’s celestial wonders through a binocular or telescope.

Venus and Moon, February 9, 2016
Photo Caption – 2016, February 9: Venus and Moon before daybreak.

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by Jeffrey L. Hunt

Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:04 a.m. CST; Sunset, 5:05 p.m. CST.  Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program.

February’s Celestial Wonders

During the month, daylight increases seventy-four minutes at Chicago’s latitude. Winter’s mid-point occurs February 4th at 9:16 a.m. CST.  The Lunar New Year occurs on the 10th.  This event is typically the second New moon following the winter solstice. On this date at Chicago’s latitude, daylight exceeds darkness. This is not to be confused with the solstice or equinox.  On the February 10th date, daylight is longer than the time between the end of evening twilight and the beginning of morning twilight, when the sky is as dark as it gets naturally.

This year, an extra day is added to the calendar to account for Earth’s revolution around the sun to keep the seasons matching with the respective months.  In the northern hemisphere, June is a hot month and December is a cold one.  If the extra or leap day were not added across many years, the summer solstice would occur during December.

Summaries of Current Sky Events
Summary for Venus as a Morning Star, 2023-24

Here is today’s planet forecast:

Morning Sky

Moon, Spica

2024, February 1: The moon is near Spica before sunrise.
February’s Celestial Wonders – Chart Caption – 2024, February 1: The moon is near Spica before sunrise.

This morning the gibbous moon, 64% illuminated, is over 30° above the south-southwest horizon, 2.2° to the left of Spica, Virgo’s brightest star.  Tomorrow at 5:18 p.m. CST, the moon is at the Last Quarter phase, although it is below the horizon in the Americas.

When the Full moon appears near Spica, this is a sure celestial sign that spring has arrived.  During the next few lunations, lunar cycles, the phase is larger when the lunar orb appears near this star.  On April 22, the Full moon appears very close to the star after sundown.

Venus with Sagittarius

2024, February 1: Forty-five minutes before daybreak, Venus is in the southeast with Sagittarius.
Chart Caption – 2024, February 1: Forty-five minutes before daybreak, Venus is in the southeast with Sagittarius.

Farther eastward, brilliant Venus is low in the southeast at forty-five minutes before daybreak.  It steps eastward in front of Sagittarius’ distant stars.  It is 5.4° to the left of Kaus Borealis and 4.3° to the upper left of Nunki, Venus passes this star tomorrow morning.  Both stars separately fit into the same binocular field with the planet.

Venus appears lower in the sky during the month, losing forty-nine minutes of rising time compared to sunrise.

Evening Sky

Saturn

2024, February 1: Saturn is low in the west-southwest after sunset.
Chart Caption – 2024, February 1: Saturn is low in the west-southwest after sunset.

Two bright planets are visible.  Saturn is low in the west-southwest at an hour after sundown.  The planet is beginning a slow slide into brighter twilight and its solar conjunction at month’s end.

Jupiter

February's Celestial Wonders - 2024, February 1: After sundown, bright Jupiter is in the west-southwest.
Chart Caption – 2024, February 1: After sundown, bright Jupiter is in the west-southwest.

Farther eastward, bright Jupiter is high in the south-southwest.  It moves eastward in front of Aries.  The planet is approaching an imaginary line from Hamal, 11.1° to the upper right of Jupiter, and Menkar, 13.6° to the lower left.

Use a binocular to spot up to four of Jupiter’s largest moons. 

Great Red Spot

Jupiter
Photo Caption – Jupiter (NASA Photo)

At 10:44 p.m. CST, when the Jovian Giant is over 15° above the western horizon, use a telescope to spot the planet’s Great Red Spot, a long-lived atmospheric disturbance in the southern hemisphere.  The spot is visible at 9 p.m. when it first rounds the eastern rim of the planet.

Jupiter sets after midnight and the beginning of the new calendar day.

Pleiades Star Cluster

The Pleiades star cluster.
Photo Caption – The Pleiades star cluster. (U.S. Naval Observatory)

Earlier during the evening, with the binocular explore the Pleiades star cluster, over 20° to the upper left of Jupiter.  The stellar bundle resembles a miniature dipper. Through the binocular, count a few dozen stars.  The cluster has distinctly sapphire stars.

The cluster is about 450 light years away.  With this proximity to the solar system, it is the best-known stellar bundle.  The blue stars indicate that the cluster is quite young in astronomical terms. To maintain their high temperature, indicated by their color, the stars consume their nuclear fuels at prodigious rates.  After the hydrogen is depleted, the core shrinks and heats up, inflating and cooling the outer layers.  The Pleiades cluster does not have any red giants.  So compared to other clusters, such as the Hyades cluster that is about 10° to the lower left tonight, the Pleiades are young.

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