In the Sky This Month

February nights offer some of the most beautiful skyscapes of the year. Orion is in the south at nightfall, with Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, twinkling fiercely below it. The stars of spring slide into better view later in the month. Venus shines highest and brightest for its current Evening-Star appearance, while slightly fainter Jupiter is in view almost all night.

The full Moon of February is known as the Snow Moon, Wolf Moon, or Hunger Moon.

Perigee February 1
Apogee February 17

Moon phases are Central Time

Moon Phases

February 5 2:02 am
First Quarter First Quarter
February 12 7:53 am
Full Moon Full Moon
February 20 11:32 am
Last Quarter Last Quarter
February 27 6:45 pm
New Moon New Moon

The Fox

Vulpecula, the fox, rises in late evening. The constellation is quite faint. Its brightest star — a red giant more than 200 light-years from Earth — is visible to the unaided eye only from a dark location, away from city lights.

More Moon and Venus

The planet Venus, which blazes as the “morning star,” perches quite close to the crescent Moon at dawn tomorrow. Venus is the brightest object in the night sky other than the Moon, so you can’t miss it.

Moon and Venus

Look for the Moon before sunrise tomorrow, with Venus, the “morning star,” to its lower left. Despite its moniker, Venus is a planet, not a star. In fact, it’s our closest planetary neighbor, passing as close as 27 million miles away.

Sky Test

The Big Dipper is high in the north as night falls, standing upside down. If you line up the two stars at the outer edge of the bowl and follow that line to the lower right, the first bright star you come to is Polaris, the North Star.

Vega Rising

Vega, one of the harbingers of summer, peeks above the northeastern horizon by around 9 p.m. Vega is one of the brightest stars in the night sky, and one of our closest stellar neighbors, at a distance of about 25 light-years.

Beta Ceti

Cetus, the whale or sea monster, is in the south and southwest at nightfall. Its brightest star, Beta Ceti, is the second-brightest star in a wide swath of sky. It’s outshined only by Fomalhaut, which is quite low at that hour.

Camelopardalis

Camelopardalis, the giraffe, is one of the largest constellations, covering a big wedge of the northern sky. But it isn’t very bold. All of its stars are so faint that you need to get away from city lights to see them.

Moon and Planets

The Moon and two bright planets form a beautiful triangle at dawn tomorrow. Brilliant Jupiter stands to the right of the Moon, with fainter orange Mars close below them.

Vanishing Venus

Venus will pass behind the Sun today, so it is lost from view in the Sun’s glare. It will return to view next month, when it will shine as the brilliant Evening Star.

Last-Quarter Moon

The Moon is at last quarter today at 4:25 p.m. CST. Sunlight will illuminate half of the lunar hemisphere that faces Earth. The illuminated fraction will continue growing smaller until the Moon is new, on January 16.

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