Sky Guide February 2017

What to look out, and up, for in February.

Our highlights of this month’s skies with the planets on offer to observers and imagers:

• A last chance look at Mercury in the morning sky
• Mars a few degrees from Venus
• Jupiter in Virgo
• Saturn in the early morning sky

Next up is the return of a couple of comets to our observing tick list:

• Comet 45P at its best on the 11th February in Hercules
• Comet 2P Encke returns to our skies in the constellation Pisces

Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year:

• Ralph – the Rosette Nebula and open cluster NGC2244 in the constellation Monoceros
• Paul – open cluster M93 in Pupis
• Jeni – supernova remnant, Messier 1 – the Crab Nebula - in Taurus

And we finish this sky guide with February’s moon phases, a conjunction with the Hyades Cluster on the 5th and a penumbral eclipse on 10th/11th February.