The Skies

Sun and Moon Data

To find sun and moon rising and setting times for your park or office, go to the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Complete Sun and Moon Data for One Day webpage.

Night Skies

An update on the moon, planets and night skies for the next few weeks. Visible planets during the period:

• Mercury climbs higher and higher in the evening sky just after dusk and is at its greatest elongation on February 16th. It then drops back toward the horizon.
• Mars is low in the southwest after sunset until about mid-February, when it begins fading slowly from view.
• Jupiter is high and bright in the evening sky – at magnitude -2.4 it shines brighter than any other point of light in the sky.
• Venus is visible before dawn in early February but soon disappears into the pre-dawn twilight.
• Saturn rises shortly before midnight by mid-February and appears highest in the south as morning twilight begins.

Calendar of celestial events for the coming week:

• Sunday, 2/10 – The moon is new (dark).
• Monday, 2/11 – Mercury appears between the crescent moon (above) and Mars (below) about a half hour after sunset.
• Saturday, 2/16 – Mercury appears at its 2013 best in the evening sky.
• Sunday, 2/17 – First quarter moon.

For more information on stars, planets and other night sky phenomena, go to “The Sky This Week” page at the U.S. Naval Observatory page at http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/tours-events/sky-this-week

The Weather

Watches and Warnings

The principal watches and warnings posted as of early this morning were as follows. Note that these change over the course of a day and represent only initial daily forecasts. Click on this link for a full-sized map showing these hazards:

• Winter storm watches, warnings and advisories – South central California, a wide diagonal band from Nevada to Minnesota, most of Michigan and all the Northeast from Virginia’s mountains to Canada.
• Flood watches, warnings and advisories – The lower Ohio River valley and counties in Louisiana, Tennessee Missouri, and North Carolina.
• Coastal flooding watches and warnings – Southern California and most of the Northeast from Delaware north.
• High wind watches, warnings and advisories – Most of the Northeast from the mountains of North Carolina to Canada, western Texas, northern Arizona and southern California.

For additional information on severe weather, go to the NOAA Storm Prediction Center at http://www.spc.noaa.gov/ .

In Memoriam

On February 8, 1974, Pu'uhonua o Honaunau NHP cultural demonstrator Henry Kekuewa, 55, died of a heart attack while on a park field trip.  Click here for a full list of on-duty deaths.

From The Morning Report Archives

Today’s incident from the Morning Report archives:

C&O Canal NHP – On April 18, 1989, a federal judge sentenced a 45-year-old resident of Potomac, Maryland, to 15 days in jail and fined him $20,000 for cutting down 138 trees in the park in order to get a view of the Potomac River. He’d been convicted earlier in the year of destruction of government timber and disposing of government property. He’d bought his house in Potomac in 1982. Despite discussions with the park about what timber could be cut down and what couldn’t be removed, he went ahead and hired a tree service company in 1985 to cut down the trees, valued at more than $30,000. He and his wife later listed the house and four acres for sale, advertising it as having a river view. The man was also ordered to serve two years’ probation and perform 300 hours of community service.

Contact Information
Name: Bill Halainen, Editor