NIGHT SKY THIS WEEK, 18-24 FEBRUARY 2019.

Night Sky This Week for 18-24 February 2019.

Another week gone by and still no clear skies in my neck of the woods!
I have pretty much missed out on comet Iwamoto as it quickly fades from view, especially with the full Moon that is fast approaching.
Ah well, it is what it is and we now look toward a new week and what to expect in the night sky.
All images courtesy of SkySafari 6 Pro.

MOON AND PLANETS.

The Moon will take center stage this week as it reaches full phase, it will also be making it's closest approach to the Earth known as a Perigee.
Mars is still a early evening object and is fast fading from view, you will need to catch this one early as it sets by 21H30 here in the South. Remember to also take a look at nearby Uranus, the two should be visible in the same field of view with binoculars.
Venus and Jupiter continue to dominate our early morning skies with Jupiter rising shortly after midnight with Saturn following along shortly after 2AM.

Venus and Saturn will pass within 1°05' of each other on Monday the 18th, they will also be at conjunction.
The pair will not fit in a scope field of view but easily visible in binoculars or the naked eye.

DEEP SKY OBSERVING(DSO).

Since we will be doing battle with the full Moon, let's take a look at some more open clusters since they do better under the glare of the Moon.

NGC 3532,  C91. Open cluster in Carina. Magnitude +3.00

This cluster in the constellation Carina is a must see for all Southern hemisphere observers, it's overall size in the eyepiece and sheer amount of stars is something to be seen, even in binoculars this cluster shines.
The cluster contains about 120 stars!  The cluster is estimated at between 200 and 350 million years old.
It is only 3 degrees from the Eta Carina star and it's associated nebula.

Collinder 240, Open Cluster in Carina, magnitude =3.90

This open cluster is found in the constellation Carina
Please note this object is not NGC 3572 but it is included in Cr 240.
The Collinder catalog was compiled by Swedish astronomer Per Collinder, it was published as an appendix to his 1931 paper On structural properties of open galactic clusters and their spatial distribution.
The cluster lies almost 1⁰ 43 from our previous target NGC 3532.
While not as dense and spread out as our previous target this mag 3 cluster is a easy pick up even under the moonlight.

Something else to look out for this week is the Sirius occultation, for more on this see HERE.

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION(ISS).

The ISS makes a few welcome early evening passes this week.
Below is the table from Spot the station for Durban, to see more for your city click on the "Spot the station" link under "Useful links" to the right of this blog.

Date	Visible	Max Height	Appears	Disappears	Share Event
Mon Feb 18, 3:41 AM	< 1 min	15°	15° above NE	10° above NE
Mon Feb 18, 8:15 PM	2 min	17°	17° above SW	10° above S
Tue Feb 19, 7:23 PM	3 min	32°	32° above SW	11° above SSE
Thu Feb 21, 7:17 PM	1 min	13°	13° above SSW	10° above S

Get out there and watch the ISS as it sails way above our heads!

With a bit of luck you will find some clear skies and have some fun out there, by eye, binocular or scope keep looking up!