As the winter nights press on, it can be frustrating to notice the paucity of good clear skies. Night after night of clouds can make it difficult to keep track of the progression of the Moon, let alone the motion of Jupiter and Venus. This means that when the clouds do part, an observer needs to be ready with binoculars or telescope in one hand and target list in the other. As soon as you see the friendly glow of Venus over the western horizon after sunset, quickly put on your thermal underwear, heavy clothes, two layers of socks, a snowmobile suit, gloves, hat, ski mask, and scarf and hurry outside! Don't forget the hand-warmers either. It's cold out!
This time we will be looking to the north-east late in the night (around 2:30 a.m.). Rising in this direction will be the bright star Vega, and to the upper-right of this the trapezoid-shaped chest of Hercules. To the left of this trapezoid is the head of Draco, the great dragon. The star field is shown below in this image, oriented how you would see it looking north-east at 2:30 a.m. on February 2:
The constellation names are given, and various stars are labeled with their Bayer designation (Greek letters). Near the center of the image is M92, a brilliant ball of hundreds of thousands of stars all bound together gravitationally:
Sliding near M92 from February 1st through the 5th will be the comet C/2009 P1 (Garradd), which put on a nice evening showing last autumn. Making its reappearance in the morning sky, this comet is still a fairly bright target and should appear as a fuzzy spot which moves over the course of a day. The finder chart below, courtesy of Astronomy Magazine, will help you track its motion during the month:
Just be aware that in this finder chart, north is up, while in the first image posted above north is to the left. This is why I have labeled the stars with the Greek letters as they are in the finder chart.
Be sure to let your eyes adjust to the darkness first. This will help the faint details of the comet become more apparent. It may further help to use averted vision - looking off to the side a bit and letting your peripheral vision (which is more sensitive to light) detect its location.
Happy viewing!
