North American Skies

Sky Events
(PLEASE NOTE: All times are given for the EASTERN TIME ZONE (Standard or Daylight as applicable).  Subtract 1 hour for Central Time, 2 hours for Mountain Time, and 3 hours for Pacific Time. For example, a listed time of 12:00 p.m. (noon) Eastern Time, is 11 a.m. Central, 10 a.m. Mountain, and 9 a.m. Pacific. Please adjust accordingly, or for your time in other time zones.

February 2010

Date EST Description (please see note at bottom of table)
Tue, Feb 02 9:15 PM Moon passes Saturn at about 8°14’ degrees. May not rise until later in many locations’.
Fri, Feb 05 6:49 PM Moon at Last Quarter . Does not rise until after midnight in most locations, but is visible well well past dawn the next day.
Sun, Feb 712:00 PMMoon passes Antares. This is an occultation from parts of Alaska and the Aleutians, but obscured by daylight. Best views come before dawn. Look to the southwestern sky.
Mon, Feb 8 3:03 AM Mercury at Brightness maximum, magnitude 0 degrees. Visible only in the predawn eastern sky, shortly before dawn -- difficult.
Wed, Feb. 107:00 p.m."Colorado Skies" at Gates Planetarium in Denver
Sat, Feb 13 9:51 PM Moon at New Moon . This precise phase cannot be seen. Some observers may catch it as an extremely thin crescent as dusk fades on Valentines’s Day, but most observers must wait until the 15th.
Sun, Feb 14 8:30 PM Moon passes Venus at about 5°34’ degrees
Sun, Feb 21 7:42 PM Moon at First Quarter. Look to the South at sunset. During the day, the Moon passed very close to the Pleiades, but this was blacked by sunlight in North America. At nightfall, you can find the Pleiades a few degrees to the West (right) of the First Quarter Moon.
Tue., Feb 2310:00 PMThe Waxing Gibbous Moon passes less than a degree North (above for North Americans) of the open star cluster M35 in Gemini.
Fri, Feb 26 12:09 AM Moon passes Mars at about 5°18’ degrees, well up in the Southern skies for most North American locations.
Sat, Feb 27 3:52 PM Moon at Perigee at about 56.11 Earth radii. This is a close perigee and will bring somewhat larger than normal high tides in some places.
Sun, Feb 28 5:43 AM Jupiter at Conjunction (about 5.98 AU) with the Sun (cannot be seen). It also is at a brightness maximum of about -2 magnitude.
Sun, Feb 28 11:38 AM Moon at Full Moon . Opposite the Sun, it rises at about sunset.
Tue, Mar 02 5:17 AM Moon passes Saturn at about 8°11’ degrees. This occurs in the Southwestern sky before dawn, but the two can be seen near each other in the late evening southeastern sky on Monday.
Tue, Mar 02 evening Due to the orientation of the Ecliptic and the absence of the Moon to light the early evening sky, the next two weeks may be a good time to look for the Zodiacal Light in the western sky after dusk each evening. (Very dark skies required.)
Sat, Mar 06 9:00 PM Moon passes Antares, 1.3 degrees South. Neither is visible at the time from North America. Both are best viewed before dawn on Sunday.
Sun, Mar 07 10:42 AM Moon at Last Quarter
Note: Some events occur during daylight hours and/or when the objects are not currently in the sky. In those cases, you may be able to observe before dawn or after dark. Some events with little chance of observing have been removed. Information derived from a variety of sources.
[Data for this calendar has been derived from a number of sources including the Observer's Handbook 2009 of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Starry Night software, and others. Only events with a reasonable possibility for Northern Hemisphere observers, or those events with some other significance, are given.]
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Information in this calendar has been calculated and/or derived from a variety of sources. Among them are the yearly Observer's Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada; Astronomical Tables of the Sun, Moon, and Planets by Jean Meeus; and Starry Night software by Space.com. Only events with a reasonable possibility for Northern Hemisphere observers, or those events with some other significance, are given.