February 12
The Northern Brow
Sun Position
The Sun is in Aquarius near +10° declination. Days in the northern mid-latitudes run close to 11 hours; southern hemisphere evenings are arriving progressively earlier.
Sky Highlight
No annual event today. Leo is now well clear of the horizon by 9 pm for northern observers, a good week to trace the Sickle asterism that marks the lion's head and mane.
Deep Sky Object
NGC 2903, a barred spiral galaxy about 30 million light-years away. One of the brightest galaxies Messier somehow missed, NGC 2903 in Leo has a starbursting nucleus and is often compared to the Milky Way in size and structure. Well-placed from both hemispheres in February and March.
Featured Star
Rasalas (μ Leo) is an orange giant 133 light-years away, spectral class K2III, the quieter giant of Leo's northern mane. Named for the lion's head in medieval Arabic star catalogs, it crowns the Sickle from behind, visible, steady, unhurried.
Around This Date
- February 12, 1947A large iron meteorite fell near Sikhote-Alin in Russia, the largest observed meteorite fall in modern history, producing a strewn field of fragments over many kilometers.
- February 14, 2000NASA's NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft entered orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first time a spacecraft had orbited a small body.
An orange giant in a lion's mane, steady as a crown jewel, 133 light-years behind the sky.