Monthly Night Sky information provided by Chris Vaughan (@Astrogeoguy) at Starry Night Education (@StarryNightEdu).
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On Sunday night, February 23, the bright reddish planet Mars will cease its westward motion through the stars of northern Gemini, ending a retrograde loop (red path with labeled dates:time) that began in early December. From this point on, Mars will ramp up its regular easterly prograde motion below the bright stars Castor and Pollux. […] |
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On the evenings surrounding Monday, February 24, the swift orbital motion of the planet Mercury (dotted red path) will carry it upwards past Saturn, and close enough for the two planets to share the view in a low magnification telescope. After the sun has completely set from Sunday through Wednesday, use binoculars (orange circle) to […] |
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The moon will reach its new phase on Thursday, February 27 at 7:45 p.m. EST or 4:45 p.m. PST, which converts to 00:45 GMT on Friday. At that time our natural satellite will be located in Aquarius and only 1.9 degrees south of the sun. While new, the moon is travelling between Earth and the […] |
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Mercury will continue to climb higher above Saturn in the western sky after sunset each evening (red dotted path). For observers in the Americas on Friday, February 28, the very young crescent moon will pose between the two planets. All three objects will fit within the field of view of certain models of binoculars (orange […] |
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The western sky after sunset on Saturday, March 1 will provide us with a spectacular sight and a lovely photo opportunity. The sliver of a crescent moon will shine below Venus and above Mercury. Venus and the moon will linger for about an hour longer after Mercury sinks below the rooftops around 6:30 p.m. local […] |
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Once the has sky darkened on Tuesday evening, April 1, look in the lower part of the western sky, where the bright little Pleiades Star Cluster (aka The Seven Sisters, Subaru, and Messier 45) will be close enough to the 17%-illuminated waxing crescent moon for them all to share the view in binoculars (orange circle). […] |
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Another 24 hours of eastward orbital motion will place the slightly fuller crescent moon less than a palm’s width to the upper right (or 5 degrees to the celestial north) of the brilliant planet Jupiter between the horns of Taurus, the Bull on Wednesday evening, April 2. The duo will share the view in binoculars […] |
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On Thursday evening, April 3, the terminator boundary that separtes the moon’s lit and dark hemispheres will fall just to the left of a trio of large craters named Theophilus, Cyrillus, and Catharina that curve along the western edge of gray Mare Nectaris. You can tell what order the craters were formed in by observing […] |
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On Friday night, April 4 in the western evening sky, the half-full moon will shine a fist’s diameter below (or 10 degrees to the celestial west of) the red planet Mars and Gemini’s two brightest stars, Pollux and Castor. Observers in more westerly time zones will see the moon closer to the line formed by […] |