2019 Week 7: (February 10-February 16)

We have had an exceptionally cold February this year and it looks to continue for at least another week or two.  The sky has been relatively clear with great seeing but certainly difficult for astronomers to brave the cold!  Of course, in the middle of this cold we have a rare event that you do not want to miss.  The chart below highlights everything going on in the sky this week.

Date	Event
February 10	Mars 6°N of Moon
February 10	Uranus 5°N of Moon
February 12	First Quarter
February 13	Mars 1.1°N of Uranus
February 13	Aldebaran 1.7°S of Moon

I am really excited for the conjunction of Mars and Uranus.  The closest alignment occurs during the evening of February 13, 2019.  However, during the 11th-14th they will be in the same telescopic field with my camera.  Unfortunately the weather has been exceedingly cold which will make taking a photograph much harder.  If there is a clear sky I will likely be out on one of those nights.

A map of this event in the sky can be found below.  Mars will be the bright red object in the south-southeastern sky after it gets dark.  Don't confuse it with the bright red star Aldebaran which will be hanging out with the Moon that night.  Stick Mars in your binocular field and you will see Uranus hovering less than a quarter of your field below.

Mars/Uranus Conjunction, February 13, 2019

There are no rocket launches scheduled for this week but it looks like 4 may lift off the week after including the Crew Dragon Spacecraft.

There are no public events occurring this week but there will be a great free lecture next week.  Join us for the last meeting at the Kerby Centre before we move to the Calgary Public Library.  On February 21 at 7:30pm Dr. Jo-Anne Brown will be giving a talk entitled "Imaging the Invisible Using Radio Astronomy".  A description is provided below.

Radio Astronomy is a relatively young branch of astronomy that takes advantage of radio-frequency emission, instead of the more familiar optical emission. Radio telescopes can "see" through dust and gas in a way that allows us to probe farther into space, and thus further back in time than optical telescopes can. The Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO), nestled in the hills of the Okanagan Valley, has been, and continues to be, a world leader in radio astronomy, both in terms of observations and engineering. In this talk, I will review some of the history of radio astronomy, and of DRAO itself, as well as discuss my work on Galactic magnetism using data from DRAO.

DRAO Main Building and 26m Dish (Image Credit: Jason Nishiyama)

This is a free event for anyone to join, I really hope to see you there!  Details can be found below.

https://www.facebook.com/events/408536426381970/

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