February 27
The Once and Future Brightest
Sun Position
The Sun is in Pisces near +12° declination. Days in the north are approaching 12 hours; the vernal equinox is about three weeks away.
Sky Highlight
No annual event today. Canis Major is reaching its evening meridian transit this week, a good chance to observe the contrast between brilliant Sirius and the dimmer ring of stars surrounding it, including Adhara, Aludra, and Wezen.
Deep Sky Object
NGC 2362, an open cluster about 4,800 light-years away. A compact, very young open cluster in Canis Major surrounding the supergiant Tau Canis Majoris, most of its stars formed less than 5 million years ago, making it one of the youngest accessible clusters. Better for southern observers; northern observers near 30°N can see it low in winter.
Featured Star
Adhara (ε CMa) is a blue-white bright giant 430 light-years away, spectral class B2II, and the most powerful source of extreme ultraviolet radiation in the sky from our vantage point. Four million years ago, Adhara would have been the brightest star in the sky as seen from Earth, closer then, briefly the king before drifting away.
Around This Date
- February 27, 1897Bernard Lyot, the French astronomer who invented the coronagraph and made solar observation from the ground practical, was born in Paris.
- February 28, 1802Heinrich Olbers discovered Pallas, the second asteroid identified, less than fourteen months after Piazzi found Ceres, quickly establishing that the gap between Mars and Jupiter contained a belt of small bodies.
Adhara was the brightest star in the sky four million years ago, no star holds the throne for long.