Thursday February 15 to Thursday February 22

The First Quarter Moon is Saturday February 17. Saturn is lost to view. Jupiter is now in the north-western sky but still dominates the early evening sky. Jupiter is near the Moon on the 15th. Venus is visible in the morning twilight above Mars. Mars climbs higher in the morning twilight closing in on Venus.

The First Quarter Moon is Saturday February 17. Maximum Libration is on the 19th.

Evening sky on Thursday, February 15 as seen from Adelaide at 21:42 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset). Jupiter is low above the north-western horizon and not far from the waxing crescent Moon.  The inset is the telescopic view at this time.

    

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (90 minutes after sunset).   

Morning sky on Thursday, February 22 as seen from Adelaide at 05:58 ACDST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Venus and Mars come progressively close over the week, and are now at their closest, less than half a finger-width ways. The inset in the approximate binocular view at this time, the pair will alos be visible in wide field telescope eye pieces.

Mercury is lost in the twilight.

 

Similar views will be seen from the rest of Australia at the equivalent local time (60 minutes before sunrise).  

 

Whole sky on Saturday, February 17 as seen from Adelaide at 21:39 ACDST, 90 minutes after sunset (click to embiggen). Jupiter is low in the north-west.

Orion is almost due north. Bright Sirius is high in  the eastern sky. Between the bright star Canopus and the Southern Cross are a wealth of binocular objects to discover.The waxing Moon will make them progressively harder to see though.

 

   

 Elsewhere in Australia will see a similar view at the equivalent time (90 minutes after sunset).

 

 

Mercury is lost in the twilight.

Venus is in the morning twilight, it will now sink towards the horizon but will remain visible for all of February. Mars and Venus are spectacularly close on the 22nd.

Mars is rising in the morning twilight and is coming closer to Venus.  The pair re spectacularly close on the 22nd.

Jupiter is highest around civil twilight and is now visible low in the early evening sky. Jupiter is near the Moon on the 15th.

Saturn is lost in the twilight.

Printable PDF maps of the Eastern sky at 10 pm AEST, Western sky at 10 pm AEST. For further details and more information on what's up in the sky, see Southern Skywatch.


 

Star Map via Virtual sky. Use your mouse to scroll around and press 8 when your pointer is in the map to set to the current time.

Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.

Here is the near-real time satellite view of the clouds (day and night) http://satview.bom.gov.au/