Stargazing in February: Plan the parade

There’s been a ‘parade of the planets’ in the evening sky for a few weeks now, and it reaches a stunning climax towards the end of February when you can see all eight planets of the Solar System at the same time!

High in the southwest you’ll find giant Jupiter, a brilliant beacon that’s brighter than any of the stars. Grab a pair of binoculars, and you can spot the planet’s four biggest moons, strung out to either side of Jupiter itself, in a never-ending dance as they change their positions from night to night. The largest of these four, Ganymede, is larger than the planet Mercury, while the icy crust of shiny white Europa conceals a vast ocean where – possibly – some kind of aquatic life may reside.

To the right of Jupiter you’ll find the Seven Sisters, a pretty little star cluster more formally known as the Pleiades. About the same distance to the right again, but lower down in the sky, lurks the planet Uranus. Technically, it’s just visible to the naked eye – though you’ll need extremely dark conditions and 20/20 vision to spot this world. But it’s an easy sight in binoculars, and there are plenty of star-spotting apps on your phone that will help you locate Uranus.

The bright red "star" to the upper left of Jupiter is the planet Mars, currently lying next to Castor and Pollux, the twin stars of the constellation Gemini. The Red Planet was closest to the Earth last month; it’s gradually fading now as our faster-moving planet pulls away, but Mars is still more prominent than most of the stars. The Moon skims over the top of Mars on 9 February – a lovely sight in binoculars. A small telescope will show you the frozen white icy cap at the planet’s north pale, and dark markings crossing its barren deserts.

Look to the west soon after sunset for the other planets. You can’t miss Venus, more brilliant than anything in the night sky (bar the Moon). The Evening Star reaches its maximum brilliance on 19 February. Find a really dark location when the sky has turned to full night (about 7pm) and you may be treated to the eerie spectacle of shadows cast by the light of Venus.

With good binoculars (and certainly with a small telescope) you can see that Venus currently appears as a narrow crescent, where sunlight is falling on just a portion of the planet’s globe. Over the next few weeks, the crescent grows ever thinner as the Evening Star swings between the Earth and the Sun.

The "star" below Venus is Saturn, the furthest planet easily visible to the naked eye. It’s now low in the twilight glow, but if you can drag a telescope to a place with a clear horizon, you’ll make out the planet’s famous rings, appearing very thin and faint as currently we’re viewing them almost edge-on.

Dim Neptune lies between Venus and Saturn: you’ll certainly need a telescope to pick out this distant planet and an app to locate it. If you fulfill this challenge, pause for a moment and compare Venus and Neptune, the nearest and furthest planets. Neptune is considerably larger than Venus, but it’s dimmed by its immense distance: while the light from Venus takes less than four minutes to reach us, we see Neptune in light that left the planet over four hours ago.

Towards the end of the month, Mercury appears in the evening sky, and climbs up past Saturn. In the dusk glow, you may be hard-pressed to spot the innermost planet with your unaided eye, but – as always – binoculars are your friend!

On 24 and 25 February Mercury passes just to the right of Saturn, about 10 times brighter than the ringworld (best seen around 6pm). On those dates, all eight planets are on display at once, stretching from Mercury and Saturn, through Venus and Neptune, to Uranus, Jupiter and Mars. And, if you say "hang on, that’s only seven!", just look below your feet…

As well as the bright planets of the Solar System (see main story), our February skies are enlivened by a glorious display of stars.

Above Mars and Jupiter shines Capella, the sixth brightest star in the sky. Its name means ‘the little nanny goat’, and a triangle of faint stars to the right are her kids.

The orange star just below Jupiter is Aldebaran, marking the angry eye of Taurus, the celestial bull. A star cluster behind Aldebaran – the Hyades – depicts the bovine’s head, while two stars to the left of Jupiter mark the tips of his horns.

Mars lies next to Castor and Pollux who were twins in Greek mythology and fought in the Trojan War. Below them, you’ll find Procyon, in the constellation of the little dog (Canis Minor). The star’s name means ‘before the dog,’ because Procyon rises just before the most magnificent star in the sky, the Dog Star Sirius.

Scintillating brilliantly in the south, Sirius means "the scorcher". Ancient astronomers thought that its radiance added to the Sun’s heat when the two where close together in the middle of the year, to create the sultry ‘dog days’ of summer.

Nestled within this giant arc of celestial jewels is the magnificent constellation of Orion, the hunter. In myth, he was the most handsome of all men, and his star-pattern lives up to that reputation. This smallish constellation contains one-tenth of the 70 brightest stars in the sky, including blue-white Rigel and the red giant star Betelgeuse.

9 February, 7pm: Moon very close to Mars

12 February, 1.53pm: Full Moon near Regulus

19 February: Venus at greatest brightness

20 February, 5.32pm: Last Quarter Moon

24 February: Mercury near Saturn

25 February: Mercury near Saturn

28 February, 12.45am: New Moon

UK astronomers are holding a National Astronomy Week until 9 February that focuses on the Moon passing along the parade of planets. At 7pm each day, astronomers from around the country are livestreaming images the planets, the Moon and other celestial objects