FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13
After sundown, watch the intense twilight low within the west-southwest for Mercury, magnitude –1, and very low Venus, magnitude –3.9, as proven beneath. Venus is barely starting its night apparition of 2026. This night, Venus and Mercury are 8° aside.
Saturn, a lot dimmer, comes into view later in twilight.
■ Orion stands his highest within the south by about 8 p.m., in all probability wanting smaller than you may bear in mind him showing early within the winter when he was low. You are seeing the “Moon phantasm” impact. Constellations, not simply the Moon, look greater after they’re low.
■ After dinnertime Sirius the Canine Star, the brightest star of Canis Main, blazes within the southeast. Look decrease left of Orion.
In a darkish sky with a number of stars, Canis Main’s factors could be linked to type a convincing canine seen in profile. He is presently standing on his hind legs, dealing with proper. Sirius shines on his chest like a dogtag, to the appropriate or decrease proper of his faint, triangular head, as proven beneath.
However via the sunshine air pollution the place most of us stay, solely the 5 brightest stars of Canis Main are simply seen. These type the Meat Cleaver. Sirius is the cleaver’s prime again nook. Its blade faces proper (from Beta, β, to Epsilon, ε), and its brief deal with factors decrease left (ending in Eta, η).
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14
■ Under Orion and to the appropriate of Sirius hides Lepus the Hare. Like Canis Main, it is a constellation with a connect-the-dots that actually seems like what it is alleged to be. He is a crouching bunny, together with his nostril pointing decrease proper, his faint ears extending up towards Rigel (Orion’s brighter foot), and his physique bunched to the left. His brightest two stars, Third-magnitude Alpha and Beta Leporis, type the front and back of his neck, as proven beneath.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15
■ A quick-creeping pink dwarf. Have you ever ever seen a pink dwarf star? These are the commonest stars in area, however they’re so intrinsically dim that not one among them is among the many 6,000 pinpoints seen to the bare eye on even the darkest nights. One of many nearest and brightest pink dwarfs lies simply 3° west of Procyon, properly positioned these winter evenings. It is Luyten’s Star, also referred to as GJ 273, and at visible magnitude 9.9 it is in vary of small to medium telescopes. Use the finder charts with Bob King’s article Catch Luyten’s Star.
This humble object could be very near us as stars go, solely 12.3 light-years away, so it is also a excessive correct movement star; it creeps throughout its starry backdrop by 3.7 arcseconds per 12 months. Because of this a cautious visible telescope consumer may detect its movement in as little as about 3 years, writes King, “relying on its proximity to subject stars and the making and breaking of distinctive alignments with different stars.” He suggests, “Make an preliminary commentary, observe the place in a sketch, map or photograph, after which return a pair years later. Hey, no hurry.”
To find and establish Luyten’s Star with King’s charts you may have to be good at telescopic star-hopping. That is a vital talent for any novice astronomer to develop so you aren’t getting misplaced in area. See How one can Use a Star Chart with a Telescope, and count on a certain quantity of frustration at first. Everybody goes via this. Do not quit.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16
■ Excessive within the northern sky these evenings, within the seemingly empty wastes between Capella overhead and Polaris due north, sprawls large, dim Camelopardalis, the Giraffe — maybe the largest often-visible constellation you do not know. Until you have got darkish sky, you may want binoculars to work out its giant, nondescript sample utilizing the constellation chart within the middle of Sky & Telescope — a problem mission that can construct your expertise for accurately relating what you see in binoculars to what you see, a lot smaller, on a sky map.
Should you’re new at this, begin with brighter, simpler constellations and save the shy Giraffe till you get good at it.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17
■ Proper after evening is totally darkish this week, the W of Cassiopeia shines excessive within the northwest, standing on finish. And close to the zenith is Capella.
The brightest star about halfway between Cassiopeia and Capella (and slightly off to the left as you face Cassiopeia) is Alpha Persei, magnitude 1.8. It lies on the lower-right fringe of the Alpha Persei Cluster: a big, elongated, very unfastened swarm of fainter stars in regards to the dimension of your thumbprint at arm’s size. A minimum of a dozen are sixth magnitude or brighter, brilliant sufficient to point out fairly properly in binoculars.
Alpha Per, a white supergiant, is a real member of the group and is its brightest gentle. It and the remainder are about 570 light-years away.
■ New Moon (actual at 7:01 a.m. EST). An annular eclipse of the Solar happens for elements of Antarctica. A slight partial eclipse happens for elements of southern Africa and the southern tip of South America. Map and particulars.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18
■ A hairline Moon occults Mercury very low in twilight for a choose area of the southeastern U.S. and Central America. Elsewhere all through the Americas, the 1½-day-old Moon has a stunning shut conjunction with Mercury. It’s possible you’ll want binoculars or a wide-field telescope to choose up the pair low within the fading twilight. They will be a bit left of due west. Mercury can be a brilliant magnitude –0.6. The Moon can be a mere 2 or 3 % sunlit and stuffed with ghostly earthshine.
Venus can be 7° or 8° beneath them. Saturn, a lot fainter, can be about 12° above them and maybe a bit left relying in your location. See the illustration beneath.
As for the occultation, listed below are map and timetables. The primary two tables, with predictions for a lot of U.S. areas, are lengthy. The primary desk provides the occasions of Mercury’s disappearance behind the Moon’s darkish, although earthlit, limb. The second desk provides Mercury’s reappearance occasions out from behind the Moon’s very skinny brilliant limb. Scroll to make sure you are utilizing the proper desk; look ahead to the brand new heading as you scroll down. The occasions are in UT (GMT) February 18th. UT is 5 hours forward of Japanese Customary Time, 6 hours forward of CST, 7 forward of MST, and eight forward of PST.
As an example: Use the primary desk to see that for New Orleans, Mercury disappears on the Moon’s earthlit limb at 6:36 p.m. February 18th CST, when the Moon continues to be 8° excessive within the west. The Moon will set for New Orleans whereas Mercury continues to be behind it.
In contrast to a star, Mercury will take a number of seconds to fade and disappear. It isn’t some extent however a half-lit disk 7 arcseconds from finish to finish. See additionally the February Sky & Telescope, pages 47 and 50.
■ Later Wednesday evening, slow-moving Ganymede exits Jupiter’s face at 8:39 p.m. EST to drift free at nighttime. Then at 8:58 EST, Ganymede’s little black shadow enters the alternative aspect of Jupiter’s face. The shadow continues its sluggish transit throughout the planet till 12:15 a.m. EST (9:15 p.m. PST).
For this month’s full listings of Jupiter’s satellite tv for pc occasions and Purple Spot transit occasions, good worldwide, see the February Sky & Telescope, web page 51.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19
Kemble’s Cascade awaits your binoculars very excessive within the north-northwest these darkish evenings. It is a dim however pretty well-known asterism, a straight star chain 2¼° lengthy named in 1980 for its pointer-outer Fr. Lucian Kemble of Canada. However it’s situated in dim, sprawling, shapeless Camelopardalis the Giraffe, tough to navigate.
So here is a shortcut. Draw a line from Algol via Alpha Persei. Lengthen the road farther on by 1½ occasions that size. You are now very shut to 1 finish of the chain, a pair of stars magnitudes 6.8 and 6.2 a 3rd of a level aside.
The Cascade presently hangs down from the left a kind of two stars (the fainter one) in early night. Most of its 15 or so different members are seventh to ninth magnitude, so you may want a darkish sky. Averted imaginative and prescient helps, as at all times for faint sights.
Celestial north, the path towards Polaris, is to the appropriate. This body is 3° tall, roughly half the width of a typical binocular’s subject of view. Picture by Greg Parker and Noel Carbone
Left of its backside finish is a delicate arc of three brighter stars, magazine 4.8 to five.8, as seen within the photograph above. These, mixed with the mag-4.9 star close to the center of the Cascade, make discovering assist.
Bonus for telescopes: That 6.2-mag star 1/3° to the appropriate of the Cascade’s prime is the brightest of the sparse, small open cluster NGC 1502, solely about 0.1° broad. Its next-brightest dozen stars are ninth and tenth magnitude.
And that 6.2-mag star, close to its the cluster’s middle, is a large telescopic double. Its elements are almost twins: mags 7.0 and seven.1, a pleasant 17 arcseconds aside.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20
■ By 8 or 9 p.m. the Large Dipper stands on its deal with within the northeast. Within the northwest, Cassiopeia additionally stands on finish (its brighter finish) at about the identical top. Between them is Polaris, about as brilliant as many of the Large Dipper’s stars.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21
■ Have you ever ever seen Canopus, the second-brightest star after Sirius? Because it occurs, Canopus lies virtually due south of Sirius: by 36°. That is far sufficient south that it by no means seems above your horizon until you are beneath latitude 37° N (southern Virginia, southern Missouri, central California). And close to there you may want a really flat south horizon. Canopus crosses the south level on the horizon simply 21 minutes earlier than Sirius does.
So, when to look? Canopus is precisely due south when Beta Canis Majoris — Mirzam the Announcer, the 2nd-magniude star about three finger-widths to the appropriate of Sirius — is at its highest due south over your panorama. That is about 8 p.m. now, relying on how far east or west you’re in your time zone. Drop straight down from Mirzam then.
■ Algol needs to be at its minimal brightness, magnitude 3.4 as an alternative of its common 2.1, for a pair hours centered on 9:22 p.m. EST.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22
■ The thick crescent Moon shines beneath the Pleiades after darkish. It is a lesser distance higher left of the 2 or three brightest stars of Aries (for North America).
■ Sure deep-sky objects maintain secret surprises inside or close to them. Get out your telescope and sky atlas for a go at Bob King’s eight Hidden Gems in Widespread Deep-Sky Objects now in night view.
This Week’s Planet Roundup
Mercury glimmers low within the west in mid-twilight, maybe finest seen about 45 minutes after sundown. Mercury continues to be brighter than its common, although it is fading: from magnitude –0.9 on Friday the thirteenth to –0.2 on Friday the twentieth. That is a lack of half its brightness.
See Mercury’s encounter with the hairline crescent Moon within the February 18 entry above.
Venus, down beneath Mercury, is way brighter at magnitude –3.9. However it has to with cope with worse horizon obstructions and extra atmospheric extinction. Venus could be discovered 7° or 8° beneath Mercury all week. Telescopically Venus is slightly spherical disk simply 7 arcseconds broad; it is on the far aspect of the Solar from us. Within the horrible telescopic seeing close to the horizon it could seem to be hardly greater than a super-bright, blobby star even at excessive energy.
Mars is out of sight behind the glare of the Solar.
Jupiter (magnitude –2.6) shines in the course of Gemini, obvious almost overhead towards the south in early night. In a telescope it is nonetheless 45 or 44 arcseconds broad. See “Jupiter Guidelines!” within the January Sky & Telescope, web page 48, with a map of its darkish belts and brilliant zones.
Jupiter’s cloudtops at all times seem much less brilliant towards the limb, making a bright-surfaced satellite tv for pc like Europa stand out extra distinctly when it is close to the beginnings and ends of its transits.
Saturn (magnitude +1.1, in Pisces) is within the west-southwest at nightfall. In twilight it is higher left of brighter Mercury and, after darkish, decrease left of the Nice Sq. of Pegasus. Saturn units about an hour after full darkish.
In a telescope Saturn’s rings are nonetheless very skinny however regularly opening up, now tilted 2° or 3° to our line of sight. The rings’ skinny black shadow on Saturn’s globe is slowly widening too. However the telescopic seeing so low can be very poor! Get your telescope on Saturn as early in twilight as you’ll find it naked-eye.
Uranus (magnitude 5.7, in Taurus 5° south of the Pleiades) is excessive within the southwest these evenings. At excessive energy in a telescope it is a tiny however non-stellar dot, 3.6 arcseconds broad. You may want an in depth finder chart to establish it amongst similar-looking faint stars, such because the chart in final November’s Sky & Telescope, web page 49.
Neptune is magnitude 7.9 close to sinking Saturn. Time to let it go.
All descriptions that relate to your horizon — together with the phrases up, down, proper, and left — are written for the world’s mid-northern latitudes. Descriptions and graphics that additionally rely upon longitude (primarily Moon positions) are for North America. Japanese Customary Time (EST) is Common Time minus 5 hours. UT is also referred to as UTC, GMT, or Z time.
Need to grow to be a greater astronomer? Be taught your manner across the constellations. They’re the important thing to finding every little thing fainter and deeper to hunt with binoculars or a telescope.
That is an outside nature pastime. For a extra detailed constellation information overlaying the entire night sky, use the large month-to-month map within the middle of every challenge of Sky & Telescope, the important journal of astronomy.
For the angle each novice astronomer wants, learn Jennifer Willis’s Modest Expectations Give Rise to Delight.
When you get a telescope, to place it to good use you may need a way more detailed, large-scale sky atlas (set of charts). The fundamental normal is the Pocket Sky Atlas, in both the unique or Jumbo Version. Each present all 30,000 stars to magnitude 7.6, and 1,500 deep-sky targets — star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies — to look out amongst them.
Subsequent up is the bigger and deeper Sky Atlas 2000.0, plotting stars to magnitude 8.5; almost thrice as many, in addition to many extra deep-sky objects. It is presently out of print, however possibly you’ll find one used.
The following up, as soon as you understand your manner round properly, are the even bigger Interstellarum Deep-Sky Atlas (with 201,000+ stars to magnitude 9.5 and 14,000 deep-sky objects chosen to be detectable by eye in very giant novice telescopes), and Uranometria 2000.0 (332,000 stars to magazine 9.75, and 10,300 deep-sky objects).
Learn How one can Use a Star Chart with a Telescope. It applies simply as a lot to digital charts in your telephone or pill — which many observers discover handier and extra versatile, if generally much less properly designed, than charts on paper.
You may additionally desire a good deep-sky guidebook. A beloved outdated traditional is the three-volume Burnham’s Celestial Handbook. It was my bedside studying for years. A formidable extra fashionable one is the large Evening Sky Observer’s Information set (2+ volumes) by Kepple and Sanner. The top for complete astro-geeks is the brand new Annals of the Deep Sky collection, presently at 11 volumes as it really works its manner ahead via the constellations alphabetically. Thus far it is as much as H.
Can computerized telescopes substitute charts? Effectively, I used to say this:
“Not for freshmen, I do not suppose, until you like spending your time getting finicky expertise to work reasonably than studying the way to discover via the sky your self. As Terence Dickinson and Alan Dyer say of their Yard Astronomer’s Information, ‘A full appreciation of the universe can’t come with out growing the talents to search out issues within the sky and understanding how the sky works. This information comes solely by spending time underneath the celebs with star maps in hand and a curious thoughts.’ With out these, ‘the sky by no means turns into a pleasant place.’ “
However, issues change. The expertise has continued to enhance and grow to be extra user-friendly — notably with software program that may now acknowledge any star subject to find out precisely the place the telescope is pointed — lastly bypassing all aiming imperfections within the mount, tripod, gears, bearings and different mechanics, or within the consumer’s talent in organising.
The most recent revolution is the rise of small, imaging-only “smartscopes.” These reap the benefits of not solely at this time’s pointing expertise, but additionally the vastly higher capabilities of imaging chips and picture processing in comparison with the human retina and visible cortex. Essentially the most subtle picture stacking and processing may come constructed proper in. The result’s respectable deep-sky imaging from shockingly small, low-priced models. The picture could also be viewable in your telephone or pc because it builds up in actual time. Some can instantly allow contributions to citizen-science tasks.
Smartscopes are altering the pastime on the entry stage. For extra on this revolution see Richard Wright’s “The Rise of the Good Telescopes” within the November 2025 Sky & Telescope. And skim the journal’s assessment of this particularly small one.
Should you get a bigger, extra typical computerized scope that permits direct visible use, be sure that its drives could be disengaged so you may swing it round and level it readily by hand if you wish to, reasonably than solely slowly by the electrical motors (which eat batteries).
Audio sky tour. Out underneath the night sky together with your
earbuds in place, take heed to Kelly Beatty’s month-to-month
podcast tour of the naked-eye heavens above. It is free.
“The hazards of not pondering clearly are a lot higher now than ever earlier than. It isn’t that there is one thing new in our mind-set, it is that credulous and confused pondering could be rather more deadly in methods it was by no means earlier than.”
— Carl Sagan, 1996
“Info are cussed issues; and no matter could also be our needs, our inclinations, or the dictates of our ardour, they can’t alter the state of information and proof.”
— John Adams, 1770
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