Poster’s Note: The text for this month’s installment from Dee Sharples, “The Sky In February 2025,” is provided below. Those wishing to listen to the article can click on the audio link below.
The planets Venus, Jupiter, and Mars will be beacons in the February sky. And Neptune, a very faint distant planet, will be in a location in the sky where it can be easily found with binoculars.
Mars can be seen in the eastern sky after sunset. On Wednesday, February 5th, Mars forms a triangle with the constellation Gemini’s brightest stars, Castor and Pollux. Shining with a reddish hue, Mars at magnitude -1.1 will be easy to spot. Mars will be visible all night climbing higher in the sky as the night progresses.
Venus, shining at a brilliant magnitude -4.7, is impossible to miss in the western sky and acts as a signpost to find Neptune, the farthest planet in our solar system. Ninety minutes after sunset on Saturday, February 1st, if you have binoculars, turn them toward Venus and the moon. In the same binocular field, you’ll be able to see Venus, the moon, and faint Neptune shining at only magnitude 7.8. Neptune will be below and to the left of a very thin crescent moon. The planet which is 2.8 billion miles from the sun will have a distinctly bluish hue due to the methane found in its upper atmosphere.
Jupiter will already be high in the south when the sun sets shining at a bright magnitude -2.4 in the constellation Taurus the Bull. At 9:00 PM on Saturday, February 15th, Aldebaran, the red giant star representing the eye of the bull, can be seen just below and to the right of Jupiter.
Six planets align in the night sky from east to west after sunset on Monday, February 3rd. Four of the brightest ones can be seen naked eye. If you have binoculars, you can use them to try and spot the two faintest ones.