* Astronomy

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February 2017

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Lunar perigee is at 14:11 UT, 6th February 2017

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The Moon occults Aldebaran at ~21:38 UT, 5th February 2017.

Meteor Showers

February has no major meteor showers but there are a couple of minor showers for Southern hemisphere observers, the Alpha and Beta Centaurids. Although the Alpha Centaurids is considered a minor shower, in some years the number of meteors rises enough to reach the level of a major shower. While Alpha & Beta Centaurids can occasionally be seen during most of the month, their peaks occur on the same night, in the early morning hours of February 8.

Shower	Activity Period	Maximum	Radiant		Velocity	ZHR
		Date	R.A.	Dec.	km/s
Beta Centaurids	1- 25 February	9 February	13.9h	-58.1°	58.9	13.2
Alpha Centaurids		9 February	14.5h	-59.8°	58.2	7.0
Pi Virginids	Feb.- 9 March	12 February
Beta Leonids	Feb.- 25 March	13 February
Delta Velids	Jan 22-Feb 21	14 February	08:44	-52°	35	1
Omicron Centaurids	Jan 31-Feb 19	14 February	11:48	-56°	51	2
Delta Leonids	Feb 15-Mar 10	22 February	11:12	+16°	23	2
Sigma Leonids		25 February	176°	+9°		2

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Highlights

Objects of the Heart for Valentine's Day.

On February 14, many areas of the world will celebrate love with Valentine's Day. For those of you lucky enough to have a loved one of your own (or not), consider the following objects provided in the Heavens:
The first and most obvious is the planet of Venus, named after the Greek Goddess of love. Now, go over to the constellation of Cassiopeia, and you will find The Heart Nebula. Officially called by the decidedly less romantic "IC1805", the Heart Nebula glows a reddish hue (naturally) at magnitude +6. Surrounding the delicate splash of diamonds, is the star cluster Melotte 15.
Next is the Rosette Nebula, NGC 2237. Located in Monoceros, this delicate planetary nebula is perhaps one of the prettiest in the sky. Zoom in with a field of view of 4 degrees, you will see beauty gracefully bloom on your screen unlike anything you're seen before. If the roses have done their job, you may at last want to consider the Ring Nebula, M57. Rising in the early morning hours during the winter, M57 is one of the easiest to locate deep-sky objects and one of the most aptly named, nestled gently in the side of Lyra, the Lyre. Low power telescope views show a very small blue/green disk, not much bigger than a star. Medium to high power will magnify the size of the nebula while leaving the surrounding stars the same size, confirming you have found it. It can be seen in binoculars as a faint star like point of light.