Hello ...
Here's your Cosmic Pursuits newsletter for February 2024!
First a quick note - we will be offering our annual 'Fundamentals of Stargazing' course this month. It opens to new students for two weeks only starting around February 16 - look for an announcement at that time...
And now, to the night sky.
1. We've got planets aplenty this month along with some lovely lunar conjunctions. And the zodiacal light makes an accessible evening appearance after sunset for observers with dark sky by month's end. Here's what to see in the Night Sky This Month...
2. Take a tour of a little patch of sky in the constellation Cepheus that's packed with bright and dark star-forming
regions, a spanking new open cluster, and a blood-red star destined to blow itself to bits.
3. Here's inspiring video from the Big Think about science, optimism, your life's purpose, and the fate of the universe.
4. Bellatrix, the star at the western shoulder of Orion, often gets overlooked for brighter Betelgeuse and Rigel. But it's plenty interesting in its own right as this article explains.
5. [And this is a re-send from last month, this time with the correct link]. A longer read with an historical bent - how the jaw-dropping Leonid meteor shower of 1833 led people to believe, quite understandably, that the world was coming to an end.
And the astronomy quote of the month...
“ When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either."
- Leo Burnett
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Wishing you clear skies!
Brian Ventrudo
Publisher
CosmicPursuits.com
