Home > Ephemeris Program, Month preview > 02/01/2022 – Ephemeris – Let’s look ahead at our short month of February

02/01/2022 – Ephemeris – Let’s look ahead at our short month of February

February 1, 2022

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, February 1st. Today the Sun will be up for 9 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 5:51, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:00. The Moon is new today, and won’t be visible.

Let’s look ahead at our short month of February. We’re in the depths of winter, but the Sun is continuing its return to northern climes. This is reflected in the increase in daylight hours, from 9 hours 49 minutes today to 11 hours 7 minutes on the 28th. These times are for the Interlochen/Traverse City area. The duration of daylight is slightly shorter in the northern part of our listening area and slightly longer to the south. As the month goes on, the weather should generally warm and clear up. We will be slowly losing Jupiter from the evening sky this month. Venus is moving away from the Sun and will pass Mars in the morning sky on the 12th. Neither Mercury nor Saturn will be visible this month because they will be lost in the Sun’s glare.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT – 5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

February Evening Star Chart

Star Chart February Evening

Star Chart for February 2022, (9 p.m. EST February 15, 2022). Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 9 p.m. EST in the evening and 6 a.m. for the morning chart. These are the chart times. Note that Traverse City is located approximately 45 minutes behind our time meridian. (An hour 45 minutes behind our daylight saving time meridian during EDT). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere (rotating star finder) you may have to set it to 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than the current time.

Note the chart times of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. are for the 15th. For each week before the 15th, add ½ hour (28 minutes if you’re picky). For each week after the 15th, subtract ½ hour. The planet positions are updated each Wednesday on this blog. For planet positions on dates other than the 15th, check the Wednesday planet posts on this blog.

February Morning Star Chart

Star Chart February Morning

Star Chart for February mornings, 2022 (6 a.m. EST February 15, 2022). Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations, click here.

  • Pointer stars at the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris, the North Star.
  • Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus, and
  • Extend like a spike to Spica,
  • The Summer Triangle is in red.

Twilight Limits, Nautical and Astronomical

      EST        
  Morning Twilight Evening Twilight Dark Night Moon
Date Astro. Nautical Nautical Astro. Start End Illum.
2022-02-01 6h22m 6h56m 18h56m 19h30m 19h30m 6h22m 0.01
2022-02-02 6h21m 6h55m 18h57m 19h31m 19h43m 6h21m 0.05
2022-02-03 6h20m 6h54m 18h59m 19h33m 20h57m 6h20m 0.11
2022-02-04 6h19m 6h53m 19h00m 19h34m 22h08m 6h19m 0.19
2022-02-05 6h18m 6h52m 19h01m 19h35m 23h17m 6h18m 0.28
2022-02-06 6h17m 6h51m 19h02m 19h36m – 6h17m 0.37
2022-02-07 6h16m 6h50m 19h04m 19h38m 0h23m 6h16m 0.47
2022-02-08 6h15m 6h49m 19h05m 19h39m 1h29m 6h15m 0.56
2022-02-09 6h13m 6h47m 19h06m 19h40m 2h34m 6h13m 0.65
2022-02-10 6h12m 6h46m 19h08m 19h41m 3h38m 6h12m 0.74
2022-02-11 6h11m 6h45m 19h09m 19h43m 4h39m 6h11m 0.82
2022-02-12 6h10m 6h43m 19h10m 19h44m 5h35m 6h10m 0.89
2022-02-13 6h08m 6h42m 19h11m 19h45m – – 0.94
2022-02-14 6h07m 6h41m 19h13m 19h47m – – 0.98
2022-02-15 6h06m 6h39m 19h14m 19h48m – – 1
2022-02-16 6h04m 6h38m 19h15m 19h49m – – 1
2022-02-17 6h03m 6h37m 19h17m 19h50m – – 0.98
2022-02-18 6h01m 6h35m 19h18m 19h52m 19h52m 20h32m 0.93
2022-02-19 6h00m 6h34m 19h19m 19h53m 19h53m 21h43m 0.87
2022-02-20 5h58m 6h32m 19h20m 19h54m 19h54m 22h55m 0.79
2022-02-21 5h57m 6h31m 19h22m 19h55m 19h55m – 0.69
2022-02-22 5h55m 6h29m 19h23m 19h57m 19h57m 0h10m 0.58
2022-02-23 5h54m 6h28m 19h24m 19h58m 19h58m 1h26m 0.47
2022-02-24 5h52m 6h26m 19h26m 19h59m 19h59m 2h43m 0.36
2022-02-25 5h51m 6h24m 19h27m 20h01m 20h01m 3h58m 0.25
2022-02-26 5h49m 6h23m 19h28m 20h02m 20h02m 5h04m 0.16
2022-02-27 5h47m 6h21m 19h30m 20h03m 20h03m 5h47m 0.08
2022-02-28 5h46m 6h19m 19h31m 20h05m 20h05m 5h46m 0.03

Twilight calendar was generated using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).

See my blog post: Twilight Zone for the definitions of the different periods of twilight here: https://bobmoler.wordpress.com/2019/09/27/

NASA Calendar of Planetary Events

Date         Time     Event
Feb  1  Tu            Venus: 32° W
     1  Tu  12:46 am  New Moon 
     2  We   4:08 pm  Moon-Jupiter: 4.4° N
     4  Fr   1:34 pm  Saturn Solar Conjunction
     8  Tu   8:50 am  First Quarter
     9  We   1:12 am  Moon Ascending Node
    10  Th   9:39 pm  Moon Apogee: 404,900 km
    12  Sa  11:45 am  Moon North Dec.: 26.4° N
    12  Sa   8:00 pm  Venus-Mars: 6.6° N
    13  Su   5:52 pm  Moon-Pollux: 2.8° N
    13  Su            Venus greatest brilliancy
    14  Mo   6:42 pm  Moon-Beehive: 3.5° S
    16  We  11:57 am  Full Snow Moon
    16  We   3:59 pm  Mercury Elongation: 26.3° West
    23  We   1:54 am  Moon Descending Node
    23  We   5:32 pm  Last Quarter
    26  Sa   1:37 am  Moon South Dec.: 26.6° S
    26  Sa   5:18 pm  Moon Perigee: 367,800 km
    27  Su   4:00 am  Moon-Mars: 3.5° N
    28  Mo   3:07 pm  Moon-Mercury: 3.8° N
    28  Mo   6:47 pm  Moon-Saturn: 4.3° N
Mar  1  Tu            Venus: 45° W

All event times are given for UTC-5:00: Eastern Standard or Daylight Time

Sky Events Calendar by Fred Espenak and Sumit Dutta (NASA’s GSFC),
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SKYCAL/SKYCAL.html

If you go to the above site you can print out a list like the above for the entire year or calendar pages for your time zone.

Sun and Moon Rising and Setting Events

LU           Ephemeris of Sky Events for Interlochen/TC
February, 2022    Local time zone: EST
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| DATE |  SUN     SUN  DAYLIGHT|   TWILIGHT*    |MOON  RISE OR    ILLUM |
|      |  RISE    SET    HOURS |  END    START  |PHASE SET** TIME FRACTN|
+=======================================================================+
|Tue  1| 08:01a  05:51p  09:49 | 06:57p  06:55a |New   Set  06:23p    1%|
|Wed  2| 08:00a  05:52p  09:52 | 06:58p  06:54a |      Set  07:42p    4%|
|Thu  3| 07:59a  05:54p  09:54 | 07:00p  06:53a |      Set  08:57p   10%|
|Fri  4| 07:58a  05:55p  09:57 | 07:01p  06:52a |      Set  10:08p   17%|
|Sat  5| 07:56a  05:57p  10:00 | 07:02p  06:51a |      Set  11:16p   26%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun  6| 07:55a  05:58p  10:03 | 07:04p  06:50a |      Set  12:23a   35%|
|Mon  7| 07:54a  06:00p  10:05 | 07:05p  06:49a |      Set  01:29a   44%|
|Tue  8| 07:53a  06:01p  10:08 | 07:06p  06:48a |F Qtr Set  02:34a   54%|
|Wed  9| 07:51a  06:02p  10:11 | 07:07p  06:46a |      Set  03:37a   63%|
|Thu 10| 07:50a  06:04p  10:14 | 07:09p  06:45a |      Set  04:38a   72%|
|Fri 11| 07:48a  06:05p  10:16 | 07:10p  06:44a |      Set  05:34a   80%|
|Sat 12| 07:47a  06:07p  10:19 | 07:11p  06:42a |      Set  06:24a   87%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 13| 07:46a  06:08p  10:22 | 07:13p  06:41a |      Set  07:05a   93%|
|Mon 14| 07:44a  06:10p  10:25 | 07:14p  06:40a |      Set  07:40a   97%|
|Tue 15| 07:43a  06:11p  10:28 | 07:15p  06:38a |      Set  08:09a   99%|
|Wed 16| 07:41a  06:12p  10:31 | 07:16p  06:37a |Full  Rise 06:11p  100%|
|Thu 17| 07:39a  06:14p  10:34 | 07:18p  06:36a |      Rise 07:21p   98%|
|Fri 18| 07:38a  06:15p  10:37 | 07:19p  06:34a |      Rise 08:32p   94%|
|Sat 19| 07:36a  06:17p  10:40 | 07:20p  06:33a |      Rise 09:42p   88%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 20| 07:35a  06:18p  10:43 | 07:22p  06:31a |      Rise 10:55p   81%|
|Mon 21| 07:33a  06:19p  10:46 | 07:23p  06:30a |      Rise 12:09a   71%|
|Tue 22| 07:32a  06:21p  10:49 | 07:24p  06:28a |      Rise 01:26a   61%|
|Wed 23| 07:30a  06:22p  10:52 | 07:26p  06:26a |L Qtr Rise 02:43a   49%|
|Thu 24| 07:28a  06:23p  10:55 | 07:27p  06:25a |      Rise 03:57a   38%|
|Fri 25| 07:27a  06:25p  10:58 | 07:28p  06:23a |      Rise 05:04a   27%|
|Sat 26| 07:25a  06:26p  11:01 | 07:29p  06:22a |      Rise 05:59a   18%|
+------+-----------------------+----------------+-----------------------+
|Sun 27| 07:23a  06:27p  11:04 | 07:31p  06:20a |      Rise 06:43a   10%|
|Mon 28| 07:21a  06:29p  11:07 | 07:32p  06:18a |      Rise 07:17a    4%|
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* Nautical Twilight
** Moonrise or moonset, whichever occurs between sunrise and sunset

Created using my LookingUp for DOS output as HTML.

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