Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
February 2025 promises to be quite interesting in terms of various astronomical events. The main event is, of course, what directly affects the Earth – solar activity. It remains quite high. Currently, seven groups of sunspots have formed on the surface of the Sun, and in these active areas there is an increase in electromagnetic activity, which will subsequently lead to emissions of streams of charged particles capable of destabilizing the situation around our planet.
In addition, as reported by SpaceWeatherLive, a coronal hole has formed in the magnetic field of the Sun’s magnetosphere: an area with reduced plasma density and temperature. From such areas, the flow of solar wind accelerates, and ionized particles reaching the Earth’s magnetosphere strike the magnetosphere harder, which leads to increased geomagnetic activity. This new hole is also now in a direct projection to the Earth in order to reach our planet as quickly as possible and have a negative effect on it.
If desired, these 7 groups of spots can be examined by using various dense black specialized filters or very thickly smoked glass.
Of the evening astronomical events, the following are worth mentioning:
The Big “parade” — the alignment of the planets — continues until February 28. And on February 28, when darkness sets in, seven planets will be visible at once. On this day, five of them — Saturn, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars — will be visible to the naked eye, and to observe Uranus and Neptune, you will need binoculars or a viewfinder from any amateur telescope. It is important to note that Mercury will only become visible from mid-February.
This “parade” in our Northern Hemisphere should be observed above the southern horizon. The first, upper, easily visible yellowish-reddish planet is Mars, then comes Jupiter, Uranus, below Venus along the line, under Venus are Neptune and Mercury, and very close to the horizon is Saturn, on which even with an amateur telescope you can see the rings.
Of the meteor showers of February, we expect the Alpha Centaurids, whose intensity is weaker than that of the known meteor showers of August or November – only 6 meteors per hour. Moreover, at the peak of activity on February 8-9, the Moon will approach the full moon phase and will illuminate the entire sky. This shower is observed mostly in the Southern, and not in our Northern Hemisphere.
Bright constellations of February: Orion (alpha Betelgeuse), Canis Major (alpha Sirius), Canis Minor, Lepus, Monoceros, Taurus, Gemini and Auriga.
The most interesting phenomena of February 2025 are occultations:
February 1 – Saturn is covered by the Moon.
February 6 – the Pleiades star cluster will be covered by the Moon.
On the night of February 9-10, the Moon will cover Mars. It will start at 3:03 and end at 3:58. Mars itself is still quite bright – 0.8 magnitude.
February 17 – occultation of Spica (the brightest star in the constellation Virgo) by the Moon.
February 21 – Moon occultation of Antares.
February 22 – Neptune occultation by the Moon.
The following objects will continue to move in their orbits near the Moon, which moves around the Earth, throughout February: February 5 – the Moon near Uranus, February 6 – the Moon near the Pleiades, February 17 – the Moon near the star Spica (constellation Virgo).
Thus, in February, even without knowledge of star maps, one can easily observe various objects of the Solar System and various known constellations, simply by observing the Moon and those objects that will either be near or pass “behind” the disk of the Moon – and such phenomena are called “occultation” by the Moon.
Author: Alfiya Rashitovna Nesterenko, Head of the Educational Astrophysical Automated ComplexPhysics Department of NSU.
The image Sun was generated by a neural network.
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