More Mercury and Jupiter
The planets Mercury and Jupiter will stand side by side at dawn tomorrow. Jupiter is the brighter of the two worlds. They will be slightly easier to see from more southerly latitudes. Saturn stands to their upper right.
The Whirlpool
M51, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy for its nearly perfect spiral arms, spins across the north tonight. It stands close to the end of the handle of the Big Dipper, which is in the northeast in early evening and wheels high overhead later on.
Mercury and Jupiter
The planets Mercury and Jupiter stand low in the east-southeast in the dawn twilight. Tomorrow, Mercury will stand close above brighter Jupiter. The planets will appear to almost touch on Friday, and Mercury will move away from Jupiter after that.
Vesta
Vesta, the second-largest member of the asteroid belt, is lining up opposite the Sun. It’s in view all night and is brightest for the year. It is just below naked-eye visibility. Through binoculars, it looks like a faint star near the back leg of Leo, the lion.
Mechanical Constellations
Three constellations visible tonight show a fascination with early scientific instruments. Sextans, Antlia, and Pyxis represent the sextant, air pump, and compass. Sextans is in the east-southeast in mid-evening, with Antlia and Pyxis lower in the southeast and south.
Alphard
Hydra, the water snake, is the longest constellation. At midnight, its head stands halfway up the southwestern sky while its tail is clearing the southeastern horizon. Its brightest star, Alphard, is low in the east-southeast, far to the upper right of the Moon.
Full Moon
The Moon will be full at 2:17 a.m. CST tomorrow as it aligns opposite the Sun in our sky. February’s full Moon is known as the Snow Moon, Wolf Moon, or Hunger Moon.
Moon and Regulus
A bright star follows the bright Moon across the sky tonight: Regulus, the heart of the lion. It’s below the Moon as night falls, and closer to the left of the Moon at first light.
Dipper Orphans
Most of the stars that make up the Big Dipper are members of a sky-spanning family known as the Ursa Major Moving Group. Its stars all formed from a single cloud of gas and dust. But the stars at the opposite ends of the Dipper aren’t members of the group.
Moon and Gemini
Castor and Pollux, the twin stars of Gemini, line up to the upper left of the Moon at nightfall. Pollux is closer to the Moon, and is the brighter of the two. Castor is a sextuplet—six stars that move through space together, bound by their mutual gravitational pull.