Monthly Night Sky information provided by Chris Vaughan (@Astrogeoguy) at Starry Night Education (@StarryNightEdu).
The moon will complete three quarters of its orbit around Earth, measured from the previous new moon, on Thursday, February 20 at 12:32 p.m. EST or 9:32 a.m. PST, or 17:32 GMT. At the third (or last) quarter phase the moon appears half-illuminated, on its western, sunward side. It will rise around midnight local time, […]
Early risers on Friday morning, February 21 can look in the southeastern sky to see the pretty sight of the waning crescent moon shining close to Antares. The duo will be cozy enough to share the view in binoculars (orange circle). That luminous reddish star located 550 light-years from our sun marks the heart of […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]