“Star light, Star bright...
the first star you see at night is still Jupiter, but by the 10th it will be Venus—low in the west.

Venus will be on the other side of the Sun, a morning star, at the beginning of the month, but by the 10th it will be the evening star. After sunset, look 3 degrees above the western horizon and see Venus with a brightness of -3.9 magnitude.

Ground Hog day, February 2nd —which is celebrated in the United States and Canada as a prognosticator of Spring—is known astronomically as one of the 4 cross-quarter days between our four seasons. No matter what Punxsutawney Phil says we are still halfway to Spring.

February 2nd the Moon is 8 degrees south of Saturn.

Mars is the reddish ‘star’ that can be seen all night. This month it is in the Zodiac constellation of Cancer, the Crab. The two bright stars to its right are Castor and Pollux, the brightest stars in Gemini, the Twins. And the constellation to the left of Mars is the great Zodiac constellation of Leo, the Lion

February 17th at 8pm watch for the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in the west. This conjunction is a rare event but may be difficult to see so low in the sky. They will be less than a Moon width apart. But watch them from February 10th to 17th to see the distance decrease between the two planets.

February 25th, the Moon is 5 degrees above reddish Mars.

Watch the moonrise out of the bay.
What a difference a Bay Makes! See for yourself.

Sunday February 28th 6:50 p.m. Exactly full at 10:40 a.m.
Monday March 1st 7:57 p.m. waning gibbous 98%
Tuesday March 2nd 9:03 p.m. waning gibbous 94%

Owen Hopkins February 2010