Thursday February 22 to Thursday February 29

The Full Moon Moon is Saturday February 24. This is an apogee (or mini) Moon. Jupiter is low in the north-western sky but still dominates the early evening sky. Venus is visible in the morning twilight near Mars. Mars  begins to climb away from Venus as the week progresses.

The Full Moon Moon is Saturday February 24.  This is an apogee (or mini) Moon, with apogee on the 26th.

Evening sky on Saturday, February 24 as seen from Adelaide at 21:29 ACDST (90 minutes after sunset). Jupiter is low above the north-western horizon.  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 Saturday, February 24 as seen from Adelaide at 06:00 ACDST, (60 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Venus and Mars are close, but get progressively further apart over the week. The inset in the approximate telescopic view of Venus at this time.

 

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

 

Whole sky on Saturday, February 24 as seen from Adelaide at 21:29 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 full Moon will make them hard 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 close but draw apart.

Mars is rising in the morning twilight and moving away from Venus. 

Jupiter is highest around civil twilight and is now visible low in the early evening sky.

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/