Cold weather and gloomy skies, interspersed with sleet, drizzle and snow! Perhaps this is not the best time of year to attempt amateur sky watching.
However, should clear skies appear, particularly clear skies at dawn, one might see five planets lined up 'in a row' across the dark sky. Beginning with the planet closest to the eastern horizon and close to it, one might see Mercury. Next in line would be Venus, easy to spot by its brightness, then Saturn, the ringed giant, then Mars, not very bright, and finally, giant Jupiter approaching the west. This array will nearly span the whole sky from east to west. This line-up is not exactly rare, but nonetheless spectacular!
What does such a line-up of the planets mean with respect to affairs on planet Earth? Nothing! There is virtually no causal connection between the positions of the stars or the planets and events or issues on Earth.
Humans are made so that they have good pattern recognition. We have been hunting for signs and clues which might give us some insight into happenings on Earth, and particularly of the future, since ancient times. The positions of the planets and stars seem like they should be important portents -- but they are not. Pattern recognition in humans is an important survival tool and sometimes the patterns we discover contain useful information. Indeed, much of the history of science has been about trying to explain why certain natural phenomena do seem to fall into patterns or classes of phenomena. However -- sometimes we humans can overdo pattern recognition and find patterns where no patterns exist. So it is with astrology. There is virtually no evidence whatever that stellar positions are portents of the future or are connected to Earthly goings-on.
One useful thing about the alignment of the planets one might see in February is that such an alignment could make it easier to find the planets in the sky if you have never done this. If I were using this alignment to find the planets listed above, I would begin in the west and find Jupiter. It will be quite bright and the brightest object in the dawn sky except Venus, on the opposite side of the sky. I would then gaze in an easterly direction across the sky and I might find Mars. Mars will be tough because just now it isn't very bright. Proceeding even more towards the east, Saturn will be reasonably bright, it will not twinkle, and it will have a faint yellowish cast to the naked eye. Then you will see bright Venus in the southeast and, finally, very close to the horizon, Mercury. Mercury will be the most difficult since it never gets much above the horizon. If you have binoculars, these might be a help too. Again, this arrangement of the planets will occur at dawn, and about 6 a.m. would be a good time to see this. The lineup will last a few weeks. Then Mercury will sink below the horizon. Good luck!
Mighty Orion the Hunter is well-positioned by 9 p.m. for evening viewing, as well as Taurus the Bull, and Gemini the Twins. If you don't know their positions, use a search engine to see a map of their positions in the night sky. Just type in these names and you should get a location map. If you find these, you may well have discovered constellations that, perhaps, not many of your neighbors know about.
I am going to try some planetary imaging soon, after better weather sets in. I will share any decent results.
-- Dr. David Cater is a former faculty member of JBU. Email him at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Community on 02/03/2016