StarWatch: Moravian University Astronomy

FEBRUARY 2026

FEBRUARY STAR MAP | MOON PHASE CALENDAR | STARWATCH INDEX | NIGHT SKY NOTEBOOK

lunar phases

1537 FEBRUARY 1, 2026: Groundhog Day: My wife and I have two rescue rabbits as pets: Sagan and Denali. They are both of the Dutch breed. Sagan, the philosopher, will be 11 years old on February 15, which is stretching the lifespan of any lagomorph, but like the Energizer Bunny, he keeps on going and going. We have had much younger Denali for less than two months. In rabbit years, he is just becoming a teenager. His previous owners must have taken very good care of him, for he has made his transition from their care to the Lehigh Valley Humane Society, and now to his new condominium in our home with relative ease. * You might think that there has to be some relationship between rabbits and groundhogs. They are both mammals, have continuously growing front teeth, are herbivores (plant eaters), and burrow. Rabbits will often claim the abandoned tunnels of groundhogs rather than digging one for themselves. Why work when you can play? This is basically Denali's mantra at the present time. Groundhogs, on the other hand, are of the Order Rodentia, members of the squirrel family, and they represent the largest ground squirrels in North America-no hopping from tree to tree for these hefty creatures. Rabbits are lagomorphs, and their closest relatives are hares and pikas. * Easter is Sagan's and Denali's time, a symbol of new life. Rabbits are very prolific; they can breed and have their young at any time of the year. However, another critter is currently getting top billing. It's the slow-moving and even slower-thinking groundhog. They make lagomorphs look like virtual Einsteins, compared to the waddling, fat, inept road-crossing critter who decides whether winter weather is staying or departing. No rodentia should have to live under those kinds of pressures, and indeed, they don't, getting it wrong almost every year. * The badger is the European equivalent, but in America, groundhogs were adopted as the soothsaying creatures that were given this opportunity to excel, only to fail in their forecasts about 61 percent of the time. * It's all about roots, and the fact that groundhogs have the opportunity as they extend their burrows to observe how roots and tubers are maturing, whether they are fattening ahead of schedule, indicating an early spring, or are falling behind in their timetable, which means more winter misery looms ahead. * A highly chatty groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil and others across the country, including a fish in Ohio, make their predictions on February 2. Phil will speak to his top hat handler in a language known as groundhogese, a series of winks, purrs, chatters, and nods that are interpreted as the weather forecast for the next six weeks. Add the sun into the mix, and the process becomes very counterintuitive. If the sun is out and Phil believes that he has seen his shadow, it is back to the den because there will be six more weeks of winter. If Phil's shadow is absent, an early spring is at hand. A groundhog simply cannot remember something so complex, especially when meteorologists have spent years learning about weather and climate patterns and often can't get a forecast correct three days in advance. * Groundhog Day occurs on the first of the four cross-quarter days occurring in a year, the time between a solstice, a high or a low sun, and an equinox, a mid-positioned sun. Still, may it be grey on Groundhog Day, February 2. I'm still looking forward to an early spring. Regardless of Phil's prediction, have a wonderful celebration. Ad Astra!

1538

FEBRUARY 8, 2026: Antiquity's Apex Predator

Standing outside on a cold December evening, I was mindful of Orion, the greatest hunter of all times, staring down at me from the tops of my neighbor's skeletal ash trees. His one arm was raised high above his head, his hand firmly grasping a club, ready to give Taurus the Bull the beating of his life if he approached too closely. The other arm held a shield, composed of the impenetrable skin of the Nemean Lion stretched tightly across it, to protect him against the charging beast's piercing horns. * February marks the best time of the year to view Orion the Hunter just after darkness. Standing straight and tall in the south, he is at the peak of his run across the sky. Orion isn't just an easy-to-recognize star pattern; it contains some of the best astronomy real estate that the heavens can muster. When I was a graduate assistant at West Chester University, my sponsor, Dr. George F. Reed, had written The Astronomy of One Constellation solely about the diversity of this colorful section of the night sky. * The area around Orion is also positioned in a hydrogen-rich region of the Milky Way, filled with so many luminaries that with binoculars from the Southern Hemisphere, I understood for the first time the concept of star clouds, cumulus-like formations made from tens of thousands of stars. * All of the luminaries that outline his body and reveal his belt are young, less than 12 million years of age. Except for red Betelgeuse, their hearts of fusing gases are beating vigorously, producing a bluish hue on their exteriors, their internal thermonuclear engines pumping out massive quantities of energy, some hundreds of thousands of times the amount that our sun produces each second. They are blue giants and blue supergiants, the superstars of the Main Sequence, which are mainly fusing hydrogen into helium and helium into carbon. * Take for example, the three belt stars of the Hunter: Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak which make Orion's pattern so distinguishable and which fit so neatly into the field of view of any pair of binoculars. See a map of Orion here. Their luminosity is staggering when compared to the sun. Mintaka (upper right) generates enough energy across the entire electromagnetic spectrum to make it 191,000 times greater than the sun's luminosity; Alnilam (middle), 271,000 times; and Alnitak, 250,000 times more radiant than Sol. It becomes very understandable why these stars have such short lives. Their energy outputs are staggering, yet their masses (quantity of matter) are only 20 to 40 times the mass of the sun. These stars are burning their candles at both ends and will die in spectacular supernova events. * The belt stars and many others are part of several OB associations in the Orion region. O and B stars are the hottest and most luminous first-generation stars to form in a cluster. Their outpourings of mainly ultraviolet radiation push and compress the hydrogen gas surrounding them, leading to the formation of second-generation, lower-mass stars that complete the cluster's growth. Our sun was a second-generation star that formed in an unnamed stellar grouping that evaporated (dissipated) billions of years ago. The best-known OB association in the Northern Hemisphere is the Orion Nebula, found as the central, fuzzy, star-like object in the sword of the Hunter. Binoculars reveal gossamer wings of expanding gases and dust and a bright spot near the center where some of the youngest stars of our galaxy reside. Estimates place this tightly knit community called the Trapezium between 100,000 and 300,000 years of age. * Finally, two of the four brightest supergiant stars of the heavens also exist in Orion. Red Betelgeuse is nearing the end of its life and has exhausted its supply of hydrogen within its core, possibly its helium as well. The star is more luminous than it has ever been, with hydrogen now burning in a thin shell encompassing its core. Look for it to go supernova in the next million years or so, a blink of an eye in the universe's 13.8 billion-year saga. Catty-corner to Betelgeuse is blue supergiant Rigel, usually the brightest star of the Hunter. Definitely not a slacker, Rigel's luminosity is about 120,000 times more than our sun. * With the moon rising after midnight, this week's sky offers a view of the greatest hunter in the heavens in the south right after dark. Orion is looking down on you tonight and will be pleased to know that you are looking up at him. Ad Astra!

Gary A. Becker map created from Software Bisque's, The Sky...

1539 FEBRUARY 15, 2026: Sky Show This Week and Next: With the moon about to become visible this week, East Coast enthusiasts will be in a good position to watch Luna sweep past six of the eight planets in our solar system, seven planets, if you include the Earth. The lineup will be Venus, Mercury, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and Jupiter. Only Mars will be on the other side of the sun, just past superior conjunction, when Earth, sun, and Mars were in alignment. Because of its proximity to the sun, Mars will still be caught in the in the sun's glare and be unobservable in the morning sky. However, this week the trick will be catching Venus very low in the WSW. Observers will need to seek a location with an unobstructed west-southwestern horizon, making high-rise apartment buildings facing west and above the trees perfect observing locations. Depending on the weather forecast, I would plan my sky watching in this manner.
Wednesday, Feb. 18: The 25-hour moon will be only 2.4 percent sunlit and just over one degree below the planet Mercury. This pairing will be spectacular through binoculars. If the weather is clear enough, earthshine, light reflected to us from the moon from a nearly full Earth, should be abundant. This phenomenon, also known as the old moon in the new moon's arms, will faintly illuminate the entire disk, accompanied by a razor-thin curved sliver of sunlight, signaling the onset of the waxing crescent.
When to observe Venus: Sunset for the Lehigh Valley is approximately 5:40 p.m. EST. If you have a nearly perfect WSW horizon, you should be able to spot Venus several minutes after sundown if sky conditions are clear enough. I suggest using binoculars to increase Venus's brightness, enhance contrast, and isolate the scene, making Venus easier to spot. Venus will be nearly nine degrees above the horizon a few minutes after sundown. Thirty minutes after sunset, Venus will have descended to only three degrees above the WSW horizon. The positioning of Venus will improve in the weeks and months ahead, becoming the brightest object in the western sky during late winter, spring, and summer.
When to observe Mercury and the Moon: At the time of sunset, 5:40 p.m., Mercury will be 16 degrees above the WSW horizon. Twenty minutes later, the Messenger God will be only three degrees lower in the heavens. You will still need a reasonable WSW horizon, but the altitude of Mercury should be sufficiently high to view both Mercury and the moon with binoculars. By 6:15 p.m., 35 minutes after sundown, Mercury will still be 10 degrees above the horizon. That is one fist, with the thumb on top held at arm's length. Using binoculars, earthshine should be vibrant and visible with the unaided eye. If you are still having issues seeing earthshine, try looking away from the moon and viewing Luna with peripheral vision. You will be looking at the moon with the rods of your eye that are far more sensitive to low light than the central vision cones that allow for sharpness and color.
Thursday, Feb. 19: There is no need to be outside at sundown. Be at your observing location about 6:15 p.m. You should easily see the seven percent sunlit crescent moon and a star-like object below and to the left of Luna. That will be Saturn. Again, earthshine should be abundant, but binoculars will help to enhance your view that should include both the moon and Saturn. Wait another 15 to 20 minutes as darkness descends, and more stars become visible in the fading twilight. Neptune will be positioned on a straight line between the moon and Saturn, about one-quarter of the distance between the two objects, on the Saturn side of your view.
Earthshine is more easily observed during mid-twilight when the contrast between the sunlit portion of the moon and a relatively bright sky is lower. During twilight, the unlit portion of the moon can be seen easily with the unaided eye when the sky is clear, and the moon is a thin crescent. As the sky darkens and the relative brightness and contrast of the sunlit crescent increases, observers may have to resort to averted vision to view earthshine. Follow the moon next week as it sweeps across the sky to its full phase.
Much success in making these observations. Ad Astra!

1540 FEBRUARY 22, 2026: Sky Show Continues This Week: Last week, we watched the moon enter the scene as the thinnest of razor crescents as it passed Mercury and continued upward to Saturn. When the moon is in a thin waxing or waning cycle, ghostly earthshine is often visible on very clear evenings. This is reflected light from a nearly full Earth, mirrored back to us by the moon. It is impossible to notice earthshine's influence on the sundrenched portions of the moon, but where Luna is still in its own shadow, it can create an elusive now you see it, now you don't effect that is almost supernatural to behold. * Since the time the moon was near Saturn on February 19, Luna has traversed a large section of the sky, heading towards its next rendezvous with the planet, Uranus. On Friday, the moon was squarely in the middle of Pisces the Fish, Saturday on the Pisces-Aries the Ram border, Sunday, in the middle of Aries, and finally near Uranus on Monday, February 23. There is a surprise waiting for observers here.
Monday, Feb. 23: Yes, the first quarter moon, right side sunlit, the left side not, is positioned just over five degrees from Uranus. Wait until complete darkness after 7:15 p.m. Binoculars will be necessary for a successful observation. Both Uranus and the moon will be visible in the same field of view. Face southwest so the moon is in front of you. Position the moon to the upper right side near the edge of the field of view of the binoculars. Uranus will be found near a star of virtually the same brightness on the opposite side of the field of view of the binoculars. The planet will be the star-like object below and to the right.
The surprise: While observing the moon, just two degrees above and to the left, you will notice the Pleiades. The first quarter moon will be just under 10 percent as bright as the full moon. Ahead of the moon will be 18 Tauri, a 5.7 magnitude star. It might be difficult at first to determine which luminary it is, but if you give the moon two hours of travel time, it will become obvious. The unlit part of the moon will be occulting this star, dead center, about 10:24 p.m. EST for the Lehigh Valley and southeastern PA. Binoculars should allow this observation to be witnessed. However, viewing through a telescope will better isolate the unlit hemisphere of the moon and let more light enter your eye. The star will reappear on the sunlit side of the moon an hour later, just below Mare Crisium, but a telescope will be needed because of the moon's brightness. Luna will glide past Taygeta of the Pleiades at 10:48 p.m., missing this star by about five minutes of arc and at 11:07 p.m., Asterope, missing it by about two minutes of arc. There will be other occultations and near misses to be seen. Near misses like those described above are best viewed through a telescope since the closest approach happens right at the moon's terminator where day is dawning and the brightness and contrast of the sunlit area may drown out the stars from visibility.
Thursday, February 26: The 77 percent sunlit moon (waxing gibbous) stands directly above Jupiter in the south at 7:30 p.m. Their angular separation will be about 5.5 degrees, allowing both objects to be scrutinized in the same binocular field of view. When to observe Venus: On February 26, you will still need an excellent western horizon to view Venus, but it will be easier. Be at your observing location 30 minutes after sundown. Venus will be about five degrees above the western horizon, Mercury to its right and Saturn above and to Venus' left. Binoculars will aid in seeing Mercury and Saturn more clearly.
March 3: The full Blood Moon is in eclipse near sunrise. See next week's StarWatch for details.
Clear skies and good observing to all. Ad Astra!