Hello Friend,

                   Will that Prognosticator, the infamous Wiarton Willlie, give us another 6 weeks of Hell?

Only time will tell.......

     Despite the fact that this Winter has been somewhat on the harsher side, for amateur astronomers in North
America, it hasn't been that great for the rest of the world either.

          The Australians have had an excessive  heatwave; over in the UK, they've had a series of extreme storms and flooding,

 Could it be time for the second coming soon? Hardly likely......but always best to be ready,   er...just in case.

Now out of all this, some good news is that Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Mercury,Venus & Mars are all visible this month
of February.

         Talk about a planetary lineup!

For Starters, Mercury is visible in the early evening, and this is a planet that hangs pretty close to the horizon, so you've
gotta have a sharp eye to spot it, with a pair of binoculars.

    Jupiter can be spotted in the early evening. It's easy to spot, as it's quite bright. I took a peek at it a few nights ago
with a pair of binoculars. Look towards the constellation of Gemini.

Actually, it's kind of fun to track the satellite Moons of Jupiter.  You can do this by referring to the RASC Observers
handbook for 2014  or using a current astronomy magazine.

Venus, is an early morning object, for all you early risers.  As is the planet Saturn, visible in the south end of the sky
around 6am.

Mars can be spotted rising around the 18th of February. towards the East.

           I usually just take advantage of the small windows of opportunity to observe the Planets. 

It might be a night where the winds are calm, even for just a short while. 

As they say  "Carpe de diem".

Enjoy your weekend,Friend,

Ray "planetary observer" Khan

PS There are also several great astronomy apps, you can get for your Ipad, Iphone or Android smartphone devices.
I'll talk about those another day.  

PPS Sharp eyed amateur astronomer, Dave Lane from Halifax, NS, recently noted some errors in Jovian Satellite
maps in the 2014 RASC Observers handbook. So perhaps just be aware of that, so you don't go bonkers.