The curtain of the Celestial Theater in February is about to open: on the 8th (the 29th of the lunar month), Venus and Mars will be staged with the moon, adding color to the upcoming Chinese New Year's Eve; On the 24th, the festival will usher in the smallest full moon of the year.
According to the Beijing Planetarium, before sunrise in the early morning of the 8th, Venus, Mars, and the Moon form an equilateral triangle, but the brightness of the three celestial bodies has a large difference: Venus is the easiest target to see, and Mars is only 13 and so on, the phase of the moon is a thin waning moon. Wang Yumin, an expert at the Beijing Ancient Observatory, said that because it is too close to the horizon, observers need to carefully look for it in the morning light, and the observable time is only a short ten minutes.
At 9 o'clock on the 11th, Saturn is conjunct the Moon, and Saturn is 2 degrees north of the Moon, so astronomy enthusiasts can observe it at night.
On the evening of the 12th, there was a thin crescent moon in the low western sky, less than 2 degrees to the west of the moon, and Neptune, the most distant planet, is worth seeing because the moon is so thin that even Neptune of the 8th magnitude will not be overwhelmed by the moonlight.
On the 15th, the conjunction of Jupiter will take place, and after dark, observers will be able to see the Moon and Jupiter in the southwest, less than 4 degrees southwest of the Moon, after which the Moon and Jupiter will drift apart.
There is also an opportunity to observe the proximity of Venus and Mars in February. Before sunrise on the 22nd and 23rd, they were only 40 minutes apart at low altitude in the southeast, and less than 1 degree apart on the morning of the 21st and 24th, so these days were suitable for observation. However, there is only one hour between the rise of Venus and Mars and sunrise, and observers should hurry to find them in the fading morning light.
The two Full Moons in February and March of this year, when the Moon was close to apogee, had little difference in apparent diameter, making them the two smallest Full Moons of the year. The biggest Full Moon of the year will occur in September and October.
*: Beijing ** client Reporter: Niu Weikun.
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