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[Music]

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what's up for February the brightest

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planets converge the constellation

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auriga and two star clusters you might

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want to get serious about

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all month long you'll notice the two

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brightest planets in the sky Jupiter and

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Venus appear closer together each

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evening find them in the West in the

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hour or so after Sundown on February

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22nd the Crescent Moon sits just a

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degree apart from Jupiter with Venus

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hanging beneath them the two planets

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then continue to get closer in the sky

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over the following week culminating in a

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close conjunction on March 1st

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another nice pairing takes place on

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February 27th when the moon and Mars

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will appear less than a degree apart

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you'll find them high in the southwest

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after sunset

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the constellation origa makes for a

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worthy Target to pick out of the

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February Sky

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origa represents an ancient Chariot

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driver and it's often depicted as the

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entire person but given the outline you

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might prefer to think of it as one of a

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chariot's Wheels

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the brightest star in auriga is Capella

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now in Latin capella is a word for a

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female goat and in addition to Capella

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there are these three little stars

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nearby known as the kids as in the name

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for baby goats which is pretty fun

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opposite capella toward the south is the

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bright star elnath technically it's part

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of Taurus next door but it helps to find

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the roughly circular shape of Oregan

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appears high in the Western sky on

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February evenings and it's relatively

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easy to find thanks to Capella and

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elnath

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from Orion look northward twice the

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height of Orion to find capella then

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spot elnath on a ridah's opposite side

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and from there it's pretty easy to

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identify the other stars that round out

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the shape of the charioteer

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constellation

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all month long observers with access to

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a good pair of binoculars or a small

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telescope can hunt for two easy star

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clusters using the brightest star in the

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sky as a guidepost

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their two open star clusters m41 and m47

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they're called open because their stars

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are close together in space but in sort

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of a diffuse structure to find them

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start with brilliant Sirius which is

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easy to pick out toward the South and

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the winter night sky m41 lies just four

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degrees south of Sirius and should be

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visible in the same field of view and

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binoculars where it appears as sort of a

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faint patch of light it's about as wide

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on the sky as the full moon though in

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actual extent it's about 25 light years

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across and is located about 2 300 light

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years away from us to find m47 you can

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also start at Sirius and work your way

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over toward the East about 12 degrees

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and then a couple of degrees to the

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north it's about the same size on the

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sky as m41 but just a little brighter

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m47 lies about 1600 light years away and

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occupies a volume of space about 12

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light years across

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our own son is thought to have formed as

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part of a cluster like these

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so finding them in the February sky can

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be a pretty neat way to connect with our

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own Cosmic Origins

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[Music]

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here are the phases of the moon for

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stay up to date with all of NASA's

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missions to explore the solar system and

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Beyond at nasa.gov I'm Preston Dykes