ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS FOR FEBRUARY 2009

FEBRUARY 3: First Quarter Moon
FEBRUARY 9: Penumbral Lunar Eclipse, start (local):6:10pm. End (local): 10:06pm.
FEBRUARY 9: Full Moon
FEBRUARY 11: Waning Gibbous Moon is 6 deg. SE of Saturn
FEBRUARY 12: Neptune at conjunction
FEBRUARY 14: Moon 4.5 deg. SW of Spica (around 3am)
FEBRUARY 14: Mercury at Greatest Western Elongation (26 deg. from the Sun)
FEBRUARY 17: Last Quarter moon
FEBRUARY 18: Asteroid Ceres (mag. 6.5) is just 11¢ from 64 Leonis (mag.6.5).
FEBRUARY 18: Moon (23 days old) SE of Antares
FEBRUARY 18: Jupiter and Mars are just 35¢ apart at 6:40am. Very low in east.
FEBRUARY 23: A thin Crescent Moon, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars form a compact
grouping within 5 degrees at dawn around 6:30am. All will be fit within a
binocular field of view.
FEBRUARY 24:  Jupiter and Mercury are just 38¢ apart at 6:30am.
FEBRUARY 26: Asteroid Ceres is at near opposition. (Distance: 1.583 A.U.;
Magnitude: 6.3). Find it about 5 deg. NW of Delta Leonis.  
FEBRUARY 28: Mars and Mercury are 1.5 deg. apart at 6:30am. They will be just
35¢ apart on March 2nd.
COMET LULIN: Comet Lulin (C/2007 N3) will be the most splendor sight for
observers. It will pursue its way along the ecliptic. This cosmic interloper
will be 2.7 degrees NE of Spica on 16 February at 4:00am. It will pass 2 degrees
SW of Saturn on February 23 at 11pm. Then it will pass just 1 degree South of
Regulus on 27th February.

Clear Skies !
- Rahul Zota (Bhuj-Gujarat)






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