SkyEye

The Calendar

This month's highlight is the partial solar eclipse taking place on 15 February.

The Solar System

The word planet is derived from the Greek word for 'wanderer'. Unlike the background stars, planets seem to move around the sky, keeping mostly to a narrow track called the ecliptic, the path of the Sun across the stars. Dwarf planets and small solar-system bodies, including comets, are not so constrained, often moving far above or below the ecliptic.

Sun Capricornus → Aquarius

Mercury Capricornus → Aquarius

The closest planet to the Sun is a morning sky object but is difficult to see due to its proximity to our star, reaching superior conjunction on 17 February. Northern hemisphere observers will get the best end-of-month views when Mercury reappears in the west after sunset. It passes within 0.5° of faint Neptune on 25 February but this event is likely to be unobservable.

Venus Capricornus → Aquarius

The evening star is quite low in the west at sunset but is slowly rising above the horizon as the month progresses. It is only 0.6° away from Neptune on 21 February but this event will be difficult to see due to still-light skies.

Earth and Moon

The New Moon partially eclipses the Sun on 15 February. Like last month, two first-magnitude stars are occulted by the Moon. Regulus, in the constellation of Leo, vanishes behind the lunar disk on the first day of the month, and Aldebaran, brightest star in Taurus, is occulted on 23 February.

Mars Scorpius → Ophiuchus

The red planet is best seen from the tropics and the southern hemisphere. It is a morning sky object, rising just after midnight for those observing it from southern latitudes. However, Mars remains low in the southeast for those looking for it from the northern hemisphere.

Jupiter Libra

Its position in the sky means the Jupiter is best viewed from the southern hemisphere. At magnitude −2.0, it is easily the brightest object in Libra. The largest planet in the solar system reaches west quadrature on 10 February, resulting in interesting interplay between the shadows cast by the planet and its largest moons.

Saturn Sagittarius

Like the other bright superior planets, Saturn is best observed from points south of the equator. It now rises before dawn.

Uranus Pisces

Uranus is getting increasingly difficult to see in the evening twilight as it approaches conjunction with the Sun in mid-April. Look for it in the west after sunset.

Neptune Aquarius

At solar conjunction early next month, the most distant planet in the solar system is virtually unobservable this month.