10:00 pm on February 1 N 9:00 pm on February 15 8:00 pm on March 1 To use this chart: hold the chart in DRACO front of you and turn it so the direction you are facing is at the bottom of the URSA CEPHEUS 2018 chart. MINOR Bright Stars CASSIOPEIA Medium Bright Stars M-31 Faint Stars BIG DIPPER Polaris ANDROMEDA Scan dark skies Double with binoculars: Cluster EBRUARY URSA PERSEUS M-31: The Andromeda Galaxy MAJOR Capella F M-42: The Orion Nebula AURIGA M-44: The Beehive Cluster Castor M-45: The Pleiades open star Pollux PISCES cluster E LEO The Double Cluster in Perseus GEMINI M-45 W TAURUS Winter is here! The days are M-44 now getting longer and the CANCER nights shorter. This will Aldebaran CANIS continue until June 20, the MINOR Betelgeuse longest day of the year and ORION the rst day of summer. Procyon M-42 From Nashville: Sirius Rigel Sunrise Sunset CANIS Full Moon MAJOR Mar 1 Feb 1 6:48 AM 5:14 PM Feb 15 6:34 AM 5:28 PM Mar 1 6:17 AM 5:42 PM Last Quarter Feb. 7 New Moon S Feb. 15 Download monthly star charts and learn First Quarter more about our shows at adventuresci.org Feb. 23 February 2018 the eye of Taurus the Bull. Look just past Aldebaran and you may see After Sunset a grouping of stars called M-45, or the Pleiades Star Cluster. While Low in the west just a couple hours after sunset is the Great your eyes alone may just see six or seven stars in this cluster, a pair of Square of Pegasus. The square marks the body of Pegasus binoculars will reveal dozens of stars. the Flying Horse. The corner of the square lying opposite Look below Orion’s belt to find M-42, the Great Orion Nebula. This the horse’s head is called Alpheratz, “the navel of the faint patch of light is a massive star-forming cloud of gas and dust over mare”. Alpheratz istelf actually belongs to the constellation one thousand light years away. Take a look through steady binoculars Andromeda the Princess. or a small telescope to see a little more detail. Under ark skies, look for M-31, the Andromeda Galaxy. Draw a line from Orion’s blue-colored foot Rigel up through Betelgeuse, Try binoculars if you can’t see it with your unaided eyes. Saturday, February 10 and keep on going until you run into Gemini the Twins. The bright That faint smudge in the sky is a massive galaxy composed adventuresci.org/saturday stars Castor and Pollux mark the heads of the twins. Under dark skies of hundreds of billions of stars, two million light years away you may just be able to pick out two stick-figure bodies leading back from us. towards Orion. 6:30 pm: Nightwatch We can use the stars of the Big Dipper to help us findPolaris , 7:30 pm: Fulldome Feature: Skywatchers under exceptionally dark skies on moonless nights may the North Star. The Big Dipper starts the evening low in the Fantastic Fractals! see the Milky Way stretching from the southeast to the northwest, northwest, but will be high enough to easily see by 8 or 9 8:30 pm: That (mostly) ‘70s Laser Show passing high above through Cassiopeia. pm. Use the two stars at the end of the bowl of the Dipper 9:30 pm: Jukebox Heroes to point you to Polaris. When you face Polaris, you’re facing 10:30 pm: Queen due north. Stay Up Late Polaris is not a particularly bright star, but it does remain After 9 pm, look high in the east for the famous springtime constellation fixed in the sky throughout the night and throughout the year. Leo the Lion. Look between Leo and Gemini to find... nothing? Unless This month When you face the North Star, you’re facing due north. Polaris you have particularly dark skies away from city lights you won’t see is at the end of the handle of the Little Dipper. This group of the famous but faint constellation Cancer the Crab. If you do have in the Sudekum Planetarium: stars is officially known as Ursa Minor the Little Bear. dark skies, look for M-44, the Beehive Cluster near the center of Cancer. It’s another great binocular target. While you’re facing north, look for a group of five stars known as Cassiopeia the Queen. This group of stars can also help As midnight approaches, Cancer and Leo are nearly directly overhead. FANTASTIC FRACTALS! you find the North Star. The central peak of Cassiopeia’s Ursa Major the Great Bear is high up too. The Big Dipper is not itself W-shape also points you in the direction of Polaris. an official constellation, but just a part of Ursa Major. High in the south you can find the bright stars of the winter evening sky. The most famous and easily found constellation A Look Ahead is Orion the Hunter. Look for the three stars in a straight As Earth orbits the Sun throughout the year, the constellations rise and line that mark his belt, the two stars that mark his shoulders, set just a little bit earlier every day. You won’t see much difference and the two stars of his feet. Betelgeuse, one of his shoulder from night to night, but you will over the course of weeks or months. Showtimes and info at stars, is distinctly red in color. Learn to find Orion, and he can What we see in today’s pre-dawn sky is a preview of the early evening adventuresci.org/schedule direct you to many other sights of the winter sky. sky in later months. Go out before dawn this month for a look ahead at the late spring evening sky. Follow the belt down and to the left for the brightest star in Local Astronomy Events the night sky, Sirius, in Canis Major the Big Dog. Follow the Rising in the southeast in the wee hours after midnight are red planet belt stars up and to the right to find orange star Aldebaran, Mars and brilliant Jupiter. They will be high in the south just before The next free public star party is scheduled for Saturday, sunrise. Look for the Moon near the two planets on the 7th, 8th, February 24 from 6:30-8:30 pm at Edwin Warner Park. Come and 9th. Mars will appear close to its rival Antares in Scorpius the observe the Orion Nebula, the Pleiades star cluster, the Scorpion. Antares is a red supergiant star, its brightness and color led Andromeda Galaxy, and more through telescopes provided by to its ancient name: it’s “anti-Ares.” Ares is the Greek name for the members of the Barnard-Seyfert Astronomical Society. Roman god Mars. Visit the BSAS web site at bsasnashville.com for details. If Mars is heading towards a close approach with Earth this summer. It the weather is bad, the star party will be cancelled. Make will gradually get brighter, reaching maximum brightness around the sure to check their web site for updates before making the end of July. By that time it will be in our evening skies, just rising as trip to a star party, especially if the weather is iffy. On the the Sun sets. It will be close enough that small telescopes may be able BSAS web site you’ll also find driving directions and a list of Download this star chart and learn more to reveal usually hard-to-see surface features like the polar ice caps. future events. about our shows at adventuresci.org.