What’s Up in the Night Sky? February 2022

Fred Barrett | Feb 02, 2022

A fabulous first gift was opened this Christmas with the successful early morning lift off of the James Webb Space Telescope. It was launched on top of an Ariane rocket from Europe’s spaceport in French Guyana in South America. Even my 4 year old granddaughter was jumping up and down screeching with excitement! She even forgot about the gifts under the tree for a moment – a very short moment.

Why is the Webb telescope so important? We’ve all been wowed for the last thirty years by the incredible pictures from the Hubble telescope and we’ve gained so much knowledge about the universe over the decades from the data it is still recording. The Hubble takes pictures in visible light, but the Webb is an infrared telescope. Infrared light is longer in wavelength (lower in frequency) than what our eyes can see. We can sense infrared as heat from objects. Visual light from distant galaxies has been lowered in frequency with the expansion of the universe and can only be seen in infrared wavelengths. They can’t be seen in visual light by the Hubble telescope. The big advantage of Webb is that it can detect those visual light wavelengths that have been shifted to infrared and thus allows astronomers to see farther back to the origins of the universe than ever before. Spectroscopy, a technique that breaks down light into its basic colour components, coupled with infrared capability, will allow collection of more data about those very distant objects. The Hubble provided an impressive image of an object but it could not provide enough scientific data to understand what that object actually is and what makes it tick.

The mirror of the Webb is 6 times larger than that of the Hubble. Since its mirror is much larger, it collects far more light and it can take more distant and deeper images with more resolution than Hubble. It will be able to see back to within a few hundred million years after the Big Bang about 13.7 billion years ago. Here’s a tidbit of info: 48 grams of gold was deposited thinly and evenly on all the mirror segments. That’s about the volume of a marble! The Webb is designed for a lifetime of 10 years but that might be shorter if more than expected fuel is used to maintain its position.

After its launch on December 25 and until it’s positioning at the second Lagrangian position (L2) on January 24, everyone in the ‘know’ went through a period of “30 days of terror”. There were 344 points where a failure could occur as it sequentially unfolded from its tightly packed configuration at the top of the Ariane rocket. These failure points included 3 course correction burns of its rockets to reach L2. The Lagrange point 2, or L2, is about 1.5 million kilometers (1 million miles) away from Earth. That’s about 4 times farther away than the Moon. There are 5 Lagrange spots in the Earth–Sun system. Each point is where a spacecraft, at the proper speed, can keep on station with a very minimal use of its fuel to maintain its position.

During the “30 days of terror”, the protective sun screen, solar cells, antennas, heat radiator, the primary telescope mirror and secondary mirror tripod were unfolded. There were 50 major deployments, 178 keeper pins released and 20 years of work accomplished. You get the picture. It was a very complex sequence of events and if any one step failed, it would have ruined the mission. There’s so much more to describe, including the fact that the Webb is arguable one of the most important scientific instruments ever built. It will take another 6 or so months to align the mirror followed by much testing and calibration before it is ready for use –can’t come soon enough!

Venus dominates the morning sky in the southeast as it rises before dawn. At predawn on the 13th, it will be at its brightest at a magnitude of -4.9. Jupiter is in the west about 10 degrees high an hour after sunset. In the morning sky, look east for Venus, Mars and Saturn. On February 12th, about a half hour before dawn, there will be displayed above the eastern horizon a descending line that starts with the bright star Altair, and continues with Venus, Mars, a crescent Moon, Mercury and finally Saturn.

There are no meteor showers this month but you can watch for the cone shape of the Zodiacal light rising up to the Hyades. A dark viewing site will be an advantage.

ATTENTION: This is your last chance to win the beautifully illustrated and informative book “The Elements” by Theodore Gray.

The contest question is: What is the Zodiacal light?

Monthly Highlights

February 1: New Moon

February 2: The Moon is 4 degrees south of Jupiter at 4 pm EST

February 8: First quarter Moon

February 10: The Moon is at apogee – 402,545 Km or 251,591 miles.

February 12: Venus is very brilliant before and after this date. Venus passes 7 degrees above Mars at 8pm EST.

February 16: Full Moon. This is the Full Snow Moon – for obvious reasons.

February 23: Last quarter Moon.

February 26: The Moon is at perigee – 365,363 Km or 228,533 miles.

February 27: The Moon is 4 degrees south of Mars at 4 am EST.

February 28: The Moon is 4 degrees south of Saturn at 7 pm EST.

Stay safe and keep looking up! Don’t forget to bundle up!

Useful books, star charts and related items for beginners and through to advanced amateurs can be ordered from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada at www.rasc.ca/publications. A subscription to our very own excellent Canadian astronomy magazine “SkyNews” can be arranged at the RASC website as well.

Let me know what you’re finding in the sky, especially anything unusual. I enjoy the emails and the feedback. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can contact me through this paper or email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Clear Skies! Fred