What’s Up in the Sky – February 2023

February’s Evening Planets:
Bright Venus will be up until around 6 PM and staying later every day until 8 PM by the end of February moving between Aquarius and Pisces. Find Jupiter in Pisces until 10 PM and setting earlier every day until 8 PM by the end of the month. Red Mars is in Taurus all night. Saturn will be in Aquarius in the first week of the month. Neptune is in Aquarius until 9 PM, setting earlier every night until 7 PM by the end of February. Uranus is in Cetus until 1 AM, setting earlier toward 11 PM through the month.
February’s Evening Stars:
View the Winter Triangle; Sirius, the brightest star viewed from Earth, in Canis Major; Betelgeuse in Orion; and Procyon in Canis Minor. Spot Rigel in Orion, Capella in Auriga, Aldebaran in Taurus, and bright Castor and Pollux in Gemini. Also find the stars of constellations Cassiopeia, Perseus, Cepheus, Draco, Leo, Aries, and Ursa Major and Ursa Minor (the Big and Little Dippers).
February’s Morning Planets:
Mercury will be up as of 6 AM moving between Sagittarius and Capricornus in the first half of the month.
February’s Morning Stars:
See the Summer Triangle of Vega in Lyra, Deneb in Cygnus, and Altair in Aquila as 4:30 AM at the beginning of the month and earlier every day. Look for Capella in Auriga, reddish Antares in Scorpius, Castor and Pollux in Gemini, Arcturus in Boötes, and Spica in Virgo, along with the stars of constellations Leo, Hercules, Libra, Cancer, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Draco, Ursa Major, and Ursa Minor (the Big and Little Dippers).
February Skylights:
- Feb 1 Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) reaches closest approach to Earth, at a distance of 0.28 AU (42 million km; 26 million mi)
- Feb 4 Moon at apogee (252,600 miles away)
- Feb 5 Full Moon at 1:30 PM
- Feb 13 Third Quarter Moon at 11:00 AM
- Feb 19 Moon at perigee (222,600 miles away)
- Feb 20 New Moon at 2:05 AM
- Feb 22 Moon is 2° south of Venus, Pre-dawn
- Feb 24 Venus, Jupiter, Moon, and Mars line up, Sunset
- Feb 27 First Quarter Moon at 3:05 AM
- Feb 27 Moon is 1° north of Mars, Midnight
- Feb 28 Moon-Mars conjunction, Midnight
Times given in EDT. Photo Credit: George Preoteasa.