“The Sky This Week” appears every Tuesday. It is written by Ian Clarke, Director of the Hatter Planetarium at Gettysburg College. The planetarium offers regular educational presentations about the stars and the skies; there’s something for early elementary through adults. Field trip requests are welcome. NOTE: field trip request form for 2022-23 is now live. The spring 2023 schedule of free shows is available here. Images created with Stellarium.
The Sky This Week, February 7-13
The next few days bring a last chance to see Comet C/2022E3 (ZTF) with binoculars. It is fading, but the moon, rising later and later, is not interfering with visibility as much. Go out after it’s gotten fully dark and scan the sky in the places indicated in the accompanying image. Again, binocs or a small telescope are needed. Note this image is zoomed way out and covers the sky from the southern horizon to the zenith.
In the same chart, I have labeled the next two stars on our winter sky tour—Pollux and Castor, the brightest stars in the constellation Gemini the Twins. Note that with these and the stars mentioned before, we are beginning to trace out a big oval of stars.
Finally, Venus is really becoming noticeable in the western sky after sunset. Keep an eye on these two planets, as they will be drawing closer together over the next few weeks.
Ian Clarke is the director of the Hatter Planetarium at Gettysburg College. In addition he has taught introductory astronomy labs and first-year writing there for over 30 years (not necessarily all at the same time). He was educated at Biglerville High School, the University of Virginia, and the University of Iowa. He lives in Gettysburg.