February Night Sky

This star map is property of the NORTH This map represents the sky at the
Kalamazoo Astronomical Society. following local standard mes:
However, you may make as many • Late January 10 pm
copies as needed free-of-charge,
• Early February 9 pm
so long as it is for non-profit
educa onal purposes and full • Late February 8 pm
credit is given to the KAS.
• Early March 7 pm
www.kasonline.org

WEST
EAST

This Month’s Moon Phases Deep Sky Object Key

1: New Galaxy
Open Cluster
8: First Quarter
Globular Cluster
16: Full
Diffuse Nebula
23: Last Quarter SOUTH Planetary Nebula

here’s only one encounter between The Moon, one day past first quarter, finds left of red-orange supergiant star Antares,

T the Moon and a planet in the evening

sky and it occurs on February 2nd. On
that evening in the west-southwestern sky, a
itself between the Hyades and Pleiades
clusters on the night of February 9th.
the heart of Scorpius, in the early morning
hours of February 24th.

young waxing crescent Moon appears just
over 4½° to the lower left of Jupiter. The
pairing will be quite snug in the field-of-
view of 10×50 binoculars, but have room to
spare in 7×50s. All other planets have now
transitioned into the morning sky.
A more obvious looking waxing gibbous
Moon forms a nearly perfect line with the
“twin” stars Castor and Pollux, of Gemini,
on February 13th.
The now just-past-last-quarter Moon lurks 3°
At dawn on February 27th, a waning crescent
Moon, Mars, and Venus form a subtle curve
above the southeastern horizon. Look ~20°
to the Moon’s left and you’ll find Mercury
and Saturn separated by 4°. Mercury will be
the higher and brighter of the two.