The Moon appears 6 percent lit and contrasts nicely with Venus’ slimmed-down, 88-percent-lit gibbous phase. The Sun fully illuminates Mars, which lies on the far side of our star beyond Venus, and its 4"-diameter disk shines at magnitude 1.3.
The following evening, February 21, Venus and Mars pass within 26' of each other. The Moon then stands 14° above the planets and still shows a slender crescent phase. Look through binoculars or a telescope 1° to our satellite’s west (off its sunlit limb), and you’ll see the 6th-magnitude glow of
Uranus. A telescope quickly confirms its planetary nature by showing a blue-green disk that spans 3.4".
Venus, Mars, and Uranus all lie among the background stars of Pisces the Fish during February’s final 10 days. On the 28th, the three stretch along a 7.5° arc of the ecliptic — the Sun’s apparent path across the sky that the planets follow closely. Venus stands approximately midway between the fainter pair.
To find the next planet, you have to scan along the ecliptic all the way through Aries, Taurus, and Gemini before finally settling in Cancer. Jupiter dominates this constellation’s faint stellar backdrop and, indeed, the rest of the night sky after Venus sets around 8 p.m. local time. The giant planet reaches opposition February 6, when it shines at magnitude –2.6. Three days prior to opposition (on the night of February 3/4), a Full Moon passes 5° south of the planet.
The gaseous world also appears largest through a telescope at opposition, with its equatorial girth spanning 45.4". February offers observers their best views of jovian atmospheric features during 2015. And the long winter nights mean you can track or image the planet through one complete rotation, which takes slightly less than 10 hours, during complete darkness.