February 2025 Skywatching Tips from NASA | JPL
Here are examples of skywatching highlights for the northern hemisphere in February 2025:
Venus blazes at its brightest in the early evening, despite being only a slim crescent through the telescope eyepiece. Mars and Jupiter to rule the night sky after Venus sets, amid the menagerie of bright winter stars in Orion, Taurus, and Gemini. And enhance your astronomy IQ by knowing the difference between a conjunction and an appulse.
0:00 Intro
0:13 Moon & planets
0:41 Appulses
1:39 Venus at maximum
2:51 February Moon phases
Appulse is the least apparent distance between one celestial object and another, as seen from a third body during a given period. Appulse is seen in the apparent motion typical of two planets together in the sky, or of the Moon to a star or planet while the Moon orbits Earth, as seen from Earth. An appulse is an apparent phenomenon caused by perspective only; the two objects involved are not near in physical space.
An appulse is related to a conjunction, but the definitions differ in detail. While an appulse occurs when the apparent separation between two bodies is at its minimum, a conjunction occurs at the moment when the two bodies have the same right ascension or ecliptic longitude. In general, the precise time of an appulse will be different from that of a conjunction. [Wikipedia]
Duration: 3 minutes
Release Date: Jan. 31, 2025
No comments:
Post a Comment