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44 FEBRUARY 2020 • SKY & TELESCOPE

Mercury

Saturn

Uranus

Neptune

10 "

Feb 1 10 20 29

1215 9

11529

15

15

Venus

Jupiter

Mars

FEBRUARY 2020 OBSERVING
Planetary Almanac

The Sun and planets are positioned for mid-February; the colored arrows show the motion of each during the month. The Moon is plotted for evening dates in the Americas when it’s waxing (right side

illuminated) or full, and for morning dates when it’s waning (left side). “Local time of transit” tells when (in Local Mean Time) objects cross the meridian — that is, when they appear due south and at

their highest — at mid-month. Transits occur an hour later on the 1st, and an hour earlier at month’s end.

The table above gives each object’s right ascension and declination (equinox 2000.0) at 0h Universal Time on selected dates,

and its elongation from the Sun in the morning (Mo) or evening (Ev) sky. Next are the visual magnitude and equatorial diameter.

(Saturn’s ring extent is 2.27 times its equatorial diameter.) Last are the percentage of a planet’s disk illuminated by the Sun and

the distance from Earth in astronomical units. (Based on the mean Earth–Sun distance, 1 a.u. is 149,597,871 kilometers, or

92,955,807 international miles.) For other dates, see skyandtelescope.com/almanac.

PLANET VISIBILITYMercury: low in the west-southwest at dusk through the 17th •

Venus: high at dusk, sets mid-evening •Mars: rises around 4 a.m., reasonably high in the south-

southeast b y dawn •Jupiter: low at dawn •Saturn: very low at dawn starting on the 7th

PLANET DISKShave south up, to match the

view in many telescopes. Blue ticks indicate the

pole currently tilted toward Earth.

PEGASUS

Rigel

Betelgeuse

CANIS

MAJOR

PISCES

Sirius

ORION

Pleiades

CANCER TAURUS

Pollux

Castor

Procyon

Arcturus

CORVUS

GEMINI

VIRGO

BOÖTES

LIBRA

Spica

LEO

HYDRA

Vega

HERCULES

CYGNUS

SCORPIUS

OPHIUCHUS

Antares

SAGITTARIUS

AQUILA

ERIDANUS CETUS

ARIES

Regulus

ECL

IPTI

C

LOCAL TIME OF TRANSIT

RIGHT ASCENSION

DECLINATION

+30°

+40°

–10°

–30°

–40°

0°

+20°

+10°

10 am 8 am 6 am 4 am 2 am Midnight 10 pm 8 pm 6 pm 4 pm 2 pm

+20°

+10°

+30°

+40°

0°

–20°

–30°

–40°

18 h 16 h 14 h 12 h 10 h 8 h 6 h 4 h 2 h 0 h 22 h

EQUATOR

Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus

Neptune

Mercury

Venus

Mars

13

Feb 8– 9

19

16

Feb 1

28

4

44 FEBRUARY 2020 • SKY & TELESCOPE

Date Right Ascension Declination Elongation Magnitude Diameter Illumination Distance

Sun^120 h 55.0m –17° 23′ —–26.83^2 ′^28 ′′ —0.985

29 22 h 44.6m –7° 58′ —–26.83 2 ′ 18 ′′ — 0.991

Mercury^121 h 53.6m –14° 05′ 14° Ev –1.0 5.6′′ 85% 1.192

10 22 h 40.0m –7° 48′ 18° Ev – 0.7 7.0′′ 55% 0.965

20 22 h 48.4m –4° 14′ 12° Ev +2.1 9.4′′ 11% 0.712

29 22 h 16.6m –6° 55′ 7° Mo +4.2 10.7′′ 3% 0.630

Venus 123 h 30.7m –4° 07′ 40° Ev –4.1 15.3′′ 73% 1.090

10 0 h 08.9m +0° 35′ 42° Ev –4.2 16.2′′ 70% 1.030

20 0 h 50.5m +5° 47′ 43° Ev –4.2 17.4′′ 67% 0.960

29 1 h 27.5m +10 ° 17′ 44° Ev –4.3 18.6′′ 63% 0.896

Mars 117 h 12.7m –22° 59′ 52° Mo +1.4 4.8′′ 93% 1.948

15 17 h 54.4m –23° 37′ 57° Mo +1.3 5.1′′ 92% 1.835

29 18 h 36.5m –23° 34′ 61° Mo +1.1 5.4′′ 91% 1.721

Jupiter^118 h 58.2m –22° 43′ 28° Mo –1.9 32.5′′ 100% 6.067

29 19 h 22.7m –22° 05′ 51° Mo –2.0 34.1′′ 99% 5.780

Saturn 119 h 46.8m –21° 09′ 17° Mo +0.6 15.1′′ 100% 10.972

29 19 h 59.5m –20° 37′ 42° Mo +0.7 15.5′′ 100% 10.745

Uranus^152 h 03.4m +12 ° 0 2′ 67° Ev +5.8 3.5′′ 100% 20.171

Neptune 15 23 h 14.8m –5° 57′ 22° Ev +8.0 2.2′′ 100% 30.847

February Sun & Planets