In the Sky This Month

Aldebaran, the bright orange eye of the bull, stands close to the Moon at nightfall. Aldebaran is nearing the end of its life. It has puffed up to many times the size of the Sun, causing its outer layers to cool and brighten.

The Big Dipper is in the northeast as darkness falls on February nights. It rotates high above the North Star later on. It’s led by Dubhe, the star at the lip of the dipper’s bowl. Dubhe consists of four stars. The brightest is a stellar giant.

In many cultures, the seasons changed on days that fell half way between a solstice and an equinox, known as cross-quarter days. One of those days was marked in early February. In Scotland and Ireland it came around February 1st and was known as Imbolc.

Sirius, the brightest true star in the night sky, is low in the southeast at nightfall. It is the leading light of Canis Major. The big dog’s second-brightest star, Adhara, perches below it, forming one of the dog’s legs.

Orion the hunter climbs high across the southern sky tonight. Its most prominent feature is its “belt” of three bright stars. Not far from the belt is a dark cloud that, through a telescope, looks like the knight in a chess game: the Horsehead Nebula.

Hydra, the water snake, wriggles into the evening sky this month. Its brightest star, Alphard, climbs into view in the east-southeast by around 9 p.m. It is not very bright, but it’s in a barren region of the sky, so it’s not hard to find.

Venus, the dazzling “evening star,” stands to the lower right of the Moon this evening. Venus is our closest planetary neighbor, which is one reason it looks so bright.

The crescent Moon is in the southwest early this evening. It pairs up with Venus, the brilliant “evening star,” creating a beautiful scene for a winter’s night.

The Rosette Nebula, named for its resemblance to a red rose, is a stellar nursery more than 100 light-years across. It’s visible through telescopes in Monoceros, the unicorn, which is below bright Orion this evening.

With a name that means “the unicorn,” you might expect the constellation Monoceros to have an interesting story. Instead, it was created mainly to fill in a dark region near bright Orion the hunter, which is in the southeast in early evening.