Night Sky and Planets in February 2008 - Tips for Observing Night Sky and Planets in February
February is an interesting skywatching month. In February nights are becoming shorter in northern hemisphere, and for example in southern Finland nights are 13 hours long in the beginning of February, while in the end of February they are only less than 12 hours long. In January the nights for observing the sky were much longer.
In early night observers can see the bright winter constellation, such as Orion. On left side of Orion one can easily see Sirius, the brightest star of the night sky. Constellation Leo can be seen in East direction, while Ursa Major is located in North-East direction. Other interesting constellations in February are Cygnus, Cepheus, Cassiopeia and Perseus.
Planets in February
In February in northern hemisphere observers can watch Mars and Saturn during the whole darkness (12-13 hours). In early morning also Venus and Jupiter can be seen, but not during the early night and midnight. Venus, also known as the morning star, can be seen shining bright low in South-East direction. In the middle of February, right now, Venus gets closer to sun and is harder to observe. Mars is located high in South direction in constellation Taurus. Jupiter is located in constellation Sagittarius and can be seen in South-East direction during the dawn. Saturn will be seen in opposition in constellation Leo in February 24th. Saturn can be seen in direction South at midnight. Saturn’s amazing disks and moon Titan can be seen even with a small telescope.
Mercury, Neptune, Pluto and Uranus cannot be seen at all in February.
Moon eclipse
The Moon will be seen in full eclipse in early morning in February 21st. In Helsinki the full eclipse can be seen at 1:21 am.
If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed or Email Newsletter.This article was written by Marko Pyhajarvi and its original location is in HomeboyAstronomy.Com astronomy blog. For more great astronomy articles, please visit HomeboyAstronomy.Com! Share This
Love this site! Might be the location I’m at, Saskatoon Sk. but I actually just got a pic of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter all in the same field of view with my Canon 40D, at 7:40 am Sunday Feb 18. Mercury will be getting really close to Venus up and until Feb 27th, very cool bright orange spot just peaking out from the glow of the Sun.
Great to see you here, Bob! That must be a great picture. You have been lucky with the weather? Here in Finland it has been raining all the time, but the last couple of nights we have had a clear sky. Last night we was great , but very bright moon caused troubles to see dimmer objects.
Just checked your blog. You have pretty good photos of the Moon in the front page!
Thanks for stopping by Bob! Please come back again to read our articles on astronomy nd amateur skywatching!
Hello Marko,
I recently purchased a telescope to enjoy stargazing with my two sons. I came upon your site searching for a reference site to facilitate the location of the planets. Thanks for simplifying the task.
Marc, Montreal
BTW, contrary to Finland, we have been enjoying great clear nights, mind you a bit cold.
Marc, thank You for your kind words. I am very glad that my articles are helpful. I hope I can provide help in the future as well. Thanks for stopping by and welcome again!
Heh.. you’re lucky man, Marc
It has really been lousy winter in Finland. Snowing and raining all the time..
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