The Night Sky This Month – February 2025
(Looking for last month’s ‘Night Sky’? Find it at this link…)
The constellations Orion, Canis Major, Taurus, Perseus, and Auriga dominate the northern sky this month, while southern observers see these same groups as well as Puppis, Carina, and Vela, constellations which harbor some of the best sights the night sky has to offer. There are plenty of planets to see in the evening sky. Venus is especially impressive this month as it reaches an incredible magnitude -4.9, as bright as it ever gets, with enough light to cast a shadow in dark locations. You also get a chance to glimpse the glow of the zodiacal light, the Sun’s light reflected off tiny grains of dust left over from the formation of the solar system. Here’s what to see in the night sky this month…
1 February 2025. A thin crescent Moon hovers about 2o from brilliant Venus in the southwestern sky as twilight falls. Follow the pair as the sky darkens and they move towards the horizon. Venus itself is a resplendent sight all month and tonight lies about 45o from the Sun, shining at magnitude -4.6 and shows a thick crescent about 37% illuminated and 32” wide. The planet appears to grow brighter, thinner, and bigger until mid-month. Also tonight, grab your binoculars or telescope to look just south of the Moon (a degree or two depending on your location) to spot tiny Neptune shining blue-green at magnitude 7.8.
4 Feb. Jupiter reaches its second stationary point and now begins its prograde motion to move eastward relative to the stars.
5 Feb. First Quarter Moon, 08:02 UT5 Feb. Look for the Moon, a little more than half lit, within a degree of the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus.
6 Feb. Jupiter hangs about 5o south of the waxing gibbous Moon in Taurus. Tonight, the planet shines at magnitude -2.5, far brighter than any star, and spans nearly 43”. It’s still a great time to observe the planet in a telescope to see its endlessly changing belts and zones and atmospheric cyclones.
9 Feb. Mars lies about 4° west of the Moon in Gemini, not far from the constellation’s brightest stars Castor and Pollux. Mars is slowly fading and shrinking in apparent size, but tonight shines at a respectable magnitude -0.8 and spans almost 13”. If you have steady air, crank up the magnification of your telescope to try to spot surface detail on the planet before it grows much smaller over the next few weeks.
12 Feb. Full Moon, 13:53 UT (the full “Snow Moon”)
14 Feb. Venus reaches greatest illuminated extent and shines tonight at magnitude -4.9, essentially as bright as it ever gets. Through February, the planet continues to narrow into an increasingly slender crescent, reaches a phase on 14% illuminated by month’s end, while growing to an apparent size of 48” by the 28th.
14-28 Feb. As the Moon moves out of the way in the evening sky, northern observers far from city lights can spot the zodiacal light in the western sky after sunset. This whitish wedge-shaped glow emerges at a steep angle to the western horizon this time of year. It’s caused by sunlight reflected by fine dust grains along the plane of the solar system. The zodiacal light is brightest closer to the Sun, so look for it about half an hour after the end of evening twilight as it extends up from the horizon towards the constellation Taurus.
17 Feb. The waning gibbous Moon lies within one degree of Spica, the brightest star in Virgo, in the early morning sky.
21 Feb. Working its way eastward, a fat crescent Moon trails Antares by a degree in the southwestern sky as morning twilight arrives.
24 Feb. Mars reaches its second stationary point and now resumes its eastward motion against the background stars.
20 Feb. Last Quarter Moon, 17:33 UT
25 Feb. Look at dusk very low in the southwest to spot Mercury and Saturn within 1.5o of each other in the bright evening twilight. You need clear view of the west-southwestern horizon to see the pair, and a pair of binoculars wouldn’t hurt. At magnitude -1.2, Mercury is the brighter of the two.
28 Feb. New Moon, 00:45 UT