February’s night sky is putting on a show! This month, Leon and Beth guide you through a rare planetary parade, where every planet—including Mercury—is visible at once. Learn how to spot Venus at peak brightness, Jupiter ruling the northern sky, and Orion’s celestial hunting dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor. Plus, we debunk the myths around planetary alignments and take a deep dive into the fiery world of Io, Jupiter’s volcanic moon, where a recent eruption reshaped its surface.
I could not find Canis Minor, and i’s out too early for Mercury. I liked the etymological discussion about the links and origins of Mercury and merchants and mercurial.
I found Canis Major, kind of, the half moons pretty bright tonight, maybe that made it difficult. I could defintiely see how the Babylonians saw a bow in part of Canis Major and Sirius as the arrow being shot at Orion.
Got lucky as well, saw what i think was the ISS pass right over North to South, another satellite crossed paths heading west to east with it in the sky. That crossover was quite a sight, i see the satellites every night walk now, but to see two cross each other is still pretty rare.