Monthly Night Sky information provided by Chris Vaughan (@Astrogeoguy) at Starry Night Education (@StarryNightEdu).

- This event has passed.
Moon Menaces Mars (all night)
February 9 @ 8:00 pm - February 10 @ 5:00 am
In the eastern sky after dusk on Sunday evening, February 9, the bright, nearly full moon will be shining a short distance to the lower left (or celestial east) of the bright reddish planet Mars – close enough for them to share the view in binoculars (orange circle). Gemini’s bright stars Castor and Pollux will twinkle to their left (or celestial northeast). The grouping will climb high in the southern sky around 10:30 p.m. local time and then set in the west before dawn on Monday. By then the orbital motion of the moon and the diurnal rotation of the sky will shift the moon farther from and above Mars. Hours before it rises in the Eastern Time zone, the moon will occult Mars for observers located in the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, Iceland, most of Scandinavia, most of Russia, eastern Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and most of China. Lunar occultations of planets are safe to observe with unaided eyes, binoculars, and telescopes. Use an app like Starry Night to look up the timings where you live.