February 4
The Rear Foot Steps Forward
Sun Position
The Sun is in Aquarius near +14° declination. Days lengthen slowly in the northern hemisphere; southern days begin to shorten from late-summer length.
Sky Highlight
No meteor shower today. The winter hexagon (Rigel, Aldebaran, Capella, Pollux, Procyon, and Sirius) spans the entire evening sky for northern observers in February.
Deep Sky Object
NGC 2392, a planetary nebula (Eskimo Nebula) roughly 2,900 light-years away. A compact, concentric-ringed planetary nebula in Gemini whose double-shell structure, caused by different phases of stellar wind, makes it one of the more structurally complex nearby planetary nebulae. Visible from both hemispheres; best from northern mid-latitudes in winter.
Featured Star
Tejat (μ Gem) is a red giant 230 light-years away with spectral class M3III, a semi-regular variable that brightens and fades over a roughly 72-day period. The rear foot of the twins, a slow red pulse 230 light-years behind the constellation's nearer stars.
Around This Date
- February 5, 1974Mariner 10 made its first flyby of Venus on the way to Mercury, returning the first close-up images of Venusian cloud patterns.
- February 4, 2004Facebook launched, the same week Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity were both active on the Martian surface, a juxtaposition that captures how ordinary the extraordinary had become.
72 days of slow brightening, then a quiet retreat. Tejat keeps its own rhythm.