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What to See in Feb 2025 (inc Special Event 28th)

Hello, fellow stargazers! February 2025 offers a celestial feast, with our planets gracing the night sky. Let's explore which planets are visible this month, along with the best dates, times, and positions to observe them. For more detailed information, you can visit BBC Sky at Night Magazine.


Special Event: Planetary Parade on February 28

A rare "planetary parade" will occur on February 28, 2025, featuring all seven planets visible in the night sky simultaneously. Mercury will join Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Venus, Neptune, and Saturn, aligning in an arc shape. While Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury will be visible to the naked eye, Uranus and Neptune will require binoculars or a telescope. The best time to view this alignment is just after sunset, with Jupiter setting around 6:30 PM GMT and Mercury dipping below the horizon by 7 PM GMT. These alignments are rare and offer a spectacular celestial event for stargazers.


Venus

Venus, often dubbed the "Evening Star," shines brilliantly in the western sky after sunset. On February 1st, a crescent Moon sits less than 3° from magnitude –4.7 Venus in a stunning evening display. Through a telescope, Venus reveals a 37-percent-lit disk, which thins during the month as its orbital path carries it closer to Earth. Viewing the disk is best in early twilight. Follow Venus throughout the month and watch its phase shrink to 15 percent, while its disk grows from 32″ to 49″.


Jupiter

Jupiter is observable well past midnight, setting after 3 a.m. local time on the 1st and by 1:30 a.m. on the 28th. Telescopic views are a delight, showing its dark equatorial belts, four Galilean moons, and occasionally the Great Red Spot. Scopes over 6 inches will reveal finer detail in Jupiter’s dynamic atmosphere, particularly with steady moments of seeing.


Mars

Mars continues to be a prominent feature in the night sky. On the evenings of February 8 and 9, the bright waxing gibbous moon will move close to Mars and the twin stars of Gemini: Castor and Pollux. What’s more, a few lucky observers – in Russia, China, eastern Canada, Iceland, Scandinavia and Greenland – will see the moon occult – or pass in front of – Mars at 20 UTC on February 9, 2025. If you look outside on the night of February 9 and don’t see Mars … that might be because it’s behind the moon! They’ll rise before sunset and set before sunrise.


Mercury and Saturn

Mercury reaches superior conjunction with the Sun on the 9th and isn’t visible early in the month. The small planet comes up to meet Saturn on the 24th, when they stand side by side. Start looking 5° high in the western sky 30 minutes after sunset. Mercury is brighter, at magnitude –1.3, with Saturn 1.5° to its left. Binoculars are best to visually capture this scene. Magnitude –4.9 Venus stands 22° degrees above the pairing, guiding your eye down to the horizon and the two fainter planets. You only have 30 minutes or so to see them before they set. Saturn is lost from view soon after this as it heads for conjunction with the Sun.


Uranus and Neptune

Uranus lies near the border of Aries and Taurus, high in the southeast after sunset. You can find it 2.5° due south of 5th-magnitude 63 Arietis, easily spotted with binoculars 6° southwest of the Pleiades. Uranus shines at magnitude 5.7 through midmonth. Its 4″-wide disk is a challenge, but try under the best conditions with high magnification. Uranus is best viewed well before midnight.


On February 1, a crescent Moon sits less than 3° from magnitude –4.7 Venus in a stunning evening display. Later in the evening, Neptune forms a perfect triangle with Venus and the Moon, with each point roughly 2° apart. Neptune is quite faint at magnitude 7.8, but there is a pair of stars (8th and 9th magnitude) near its location. Neptune has a distinctive bluish hue compared to the field stars. Even 2.8 billion miles from Earth, Neptune shows a 2″-wide disk through a telescope under perfect seeing conditions.


Remember, the visibility of these planets can be affected by local weather conditions and light pollution. For the most accurate and detailed information tailored to your location, consider consulting local astronomical resources or planetarium software. Happy stargazing!

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