In the Sky This Month

Look for Mars to the upper right of the crescent Moon this evening. The little planet looks like a bright orange star. As a bonus, the planet Uranus is nearby, too, although you need binoculars to see it.

Mars is in the southwest at nightfall and looks like an orange star. Tonight, it’s directly above the Moon. The planet Uranus is close to the upper left of Mars. Mars will move closer to Uranus tomorrow and stand almost side by side with it on Monday.

The star cluster M41 is easy to find this month, near Sirius, the night sky’s brightest star, which swings across the south during the evening. Scan between Sirius and the horizon with binoculars to see a couple of dozen of M41’s stars.

Leo, the lion, sails high across the sky late tonight. Its brightest star is Regulus. But one of its most beautiful stars is its third-brightest member, Algieba. It is a binary system — two yellow-orange stars locked in a mutual orbit.

The lights of our galactic home, the Milky Way, arch high overhead on February evenings. As night falls, the Milky Way stretches from southeast to northwest, passing directly overhead. It’s quite faint, so you need dark skies to see it.

Harry Potter fans may boo when they hear its name, but the right shoulder of Orion is nothing to sneer at. It is one of the hottest, brightest stars in the neighborhood. As night falls, Bellatrix is above Orion’s Belt.

The nearest star system visible to the unaided eye that has a known planet is in view on winter evenings. Epsilon Eridani is in the south at nightfall, although you need dark skies to see it. The star is orbited by at least one giant planet.

Lepus, the rabbit, scampers below Orion, who chases it across the sky. Its brightest star is Arneb, from an Arabic name that means “the hare.” It’s perhaps 2,200 light-years away. The fact that it’s visible at all means it must be quite impressive.

Today is Groundhog Day, a modern celebration of a cross-quarter day. Such days fall roughly half way between a solstice and an equinox. In bygone eras, these dates often marked the beginning of the seasons, not their mid-points as they do today.

Two of the biggest and brightest stars in the galaxy flank Orion’s Belt, which is in the southeast at nightfall. Orange Betelgeuse is to the upper left of the belt, with blue-white Rigel to the lower right.