February 16
The Serpent's Nostril
Sun Position
The Sun is in Aquarius near +8° declination. Northern days gain about two minutes per day; southern hemisphere days continue to retreat.
Sky Highlight
No annual event today. Hydra, the longest constellation in the sky, is climbing into the evening sky this month, its head, a small circlet of stars just east of Procyon, is the best starting point for tracing the full 100° extent.
Deep Sky Object
M48, an open cluster about 1,500 light-years away. A large, bright open cluster in Hydra, one Messier catalogued at slightly wrong coordinates, causing a century of confusion about which cluster he actually observed. Visible from both hemispheres; best in February and March.
Featured Star
Minchir (σ Hya) is an orange giant 349 light-years away, spectral class K2III, sitting near the head of Hydra, the sky's longest constellation by angular extent. Named for the serpent's nostril in medieval Arabic charts, it marks the snout of a figure that stretches a third of the way around the sky.
Around This Date
- February 16, 1948Gerard Kuiper discovered Miranda, the innermost large moon of Uranus, using McDonald Observatory's 82-inch telescope.
- February 18, 1930Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto on photographic plates taken at Lowell Observatory, comparing blink-comparator images from January.
A nostril of a serpent that spans a third of the sky, scale is the first thing astronomy teaches.