The Winter Doldrums

Sometimes I think if I didnt look at the night sky, I would swear winter would never be over. But fortunately the groundhog in Pennsylvania, and Orion slipping farther and farther down earlier and earlier tell us that no matter how cold and snowy Spring is on its way. I do trust Orion much more than the groundhog by the way. And yes, we cant see the night sky as well as we would like to right now, but anticipation builds for when we can? When our planetarium is built we will be able to bask in the night sky in comfort and clarity. For those of you who arent familiar with a state of the art digital (domed theater) think of an Imax that projects the image on a bowl over your head, and 360 degrees around you, basically you enter inside a ball with the bottom cut away. This accurately portrays the sky dome that you see when outside. Now picture almost anything that can be shown on a screen, from astronomy shows that land you on the surface of Mars, courtesy of the Mars Rovers to flying out to the edge of the imagined Universe where our Milky Way Galaxy is just a part of the starry background. Also immersive natural science type productions. I like to imagine the lions eating, or flying to Angel Falls in Africa. And a huge amount of productions fictional or not of space adventures. And all of this in the highest definition video, with tremendous sound qualities. I could go on and on as you can tell.
The sky for Febuary:
Not to much spectacular for visual observers, buy a pair of good binoculars, under 100.00 ask me where, and you can see so much more.
The 19th thru mar. 6, look up at the  eve. sky about 80 minutes after sunset, clear skies required. Look to the western horizon and you might see the zodiacal light, good for pics. with a digital camera also. You might see a tall pyramid of pearly light sloping slightly to the left, following the path of the eliptic. (the path the planets sun and moon basically travel) with Jupiter shining at its base. Very nice. This is the light reflecting off the upper atmosphere as the sun drops.
The 20th and 21st, Saturn, and the star Spica will form an equilateral triangle with the moon about 40 minutes before dawn. So get up early.
Let me know if you want tips for bino. viewing or more information on deep sky observing. Just tell me what you want and are interested in the most, next month I will let you know about the Science Education Center, and Hubble Museum that will be part of our project.
Until then remember KEEP LOOKING UP
Larry