As I mentioned in a previous post, this month the planet Venus is putting on a spectacular show in the early morning, pre-dawn sky. You can very easily see it with the unaided eye. That is to say, without the need for binoculars or a telescope. As some of you will already know, Venus is always an awe-inspiring wonder to see, even though in reality it is an absolutely deadly planet insofar as human habitation is concerned.
However, this month viewing the planet Venus will be even a little better. That is because the planet’s elliptical orbit is passing a little closer than normal to our own Earth’s orbit by about three million miles. This translates to a slightly brighter magnitude.
This morning — February 11th, Guam time — Venus rises on the eastern horizon at 4:07 AM, which is about an hour and a half from now as I type this out. Tomorrow morning — when the planet will be at its brightest magnitude — it will rise at 4:04 AM.
If you want to check out rising and setting times for the Sun, Moon, planets, galaxies and other celestial bodies in your area of the world, check out this very interesting link:
https://in-the-sky.org/whatsup_times.php
But getting back to Venus, please keep in mind that due to possible light pollution depending on where you live, atmospheric pollution — you will be looking horizontally through the Earth’s atmosphere being as Venus will be close to the horizon — and possible cloud coverage as well, you may not be able to see Venus when it first rises. It can be a little frustrating, but oh well. It is what it is, right?
On the other hand, if it is a clear, cold winter night, you will be good to go. I remember as a kid over fifty years ago seeing Venus rise over the top of the hill where I lived. It was very low in the night sky, and very brilliant. It absolutely amazed me! In fact, like many people, at first I mistook Venus for an airplane. That is how big and bright it was at the time.
Anyway, here on Guam, due to the aforementioned reasons, even though I know exactly where it is supposed to be in the early morning sky, I can’t even visually locate Venus until about 45 to 60 minutes after it first rises above the eastern horizon. From that point, I have less than two hours to view it before it will be swallowed up by the brilliance of the rising Sun. But viewing Venus, along with a tropical sunrise is a reward in itself! Magnificent!
If you are experiencing some of the aforementioned viewing problems, but still have hope of seeing Venus, allow me to suggest an easy way to get your bearings. While this is a rough estimation, here is what you can do:
1. Face eastward towards the rising Sun.
2. Pretend that you standing on the ground or floor is like the letter “L”. The ground or floor is the bottom of the letter “L”, and your body is the vertical part of the letter.
3. Another way to think of it is like the hands of a clock when they are at the 3:00 position.
4. Now, raise one arm straight up so that it is over your head.
5. At this point, you are creating an imaginary 90-degree right angle between your body and the ground or floor.
6. Now, lower your arm about halfway, or about 45 degrees. If you were to hold out your arm directly in front of you, that would be 90 degrees, which is too much; so you only want to lower it about half that distance from directly about your head. Got it?
7. Once you have lowered your arm 45 degrees, if you follow the end of your fingertips up into the early morning sky, that is the general area where you will find Venus. Trust me; you can’t miss it if there are no clouds or light pollution blocking your view. Isn’t it wonderful?
Yesterday morning I live streamed Venus on my Facebook timeline using my iPhone Xs Max, OBS, two 15′ USB cables, and two USB hubs to boost the signal strength. I may do it again this morning, depending on cloud coverage.
If you would like to learn more about February sky events, check out this page on the astronomy.com website. It is very educational:
https://astronomy.com/magazine/sky-this-month/2022/02/sky-this-month-february-2022
Happy viewing!