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By Deane Morrison

During February the bright winter constellations reach their prime position for evening viewing. They come out east of brilliant Jupiter and follow the planet across the night sky. Bringing up the rear is low and glorious Sirius, the brightest of stars, and its dim constellation, Canis Major, the big dog.

These stars start to exit the sky next month, so if you haven’t enjoyed them yet, grab a star chart and go out at nightfall. Try Thursday, the 15th, when a waxing moon will be just west of the Pleiades star cluster and the V-shaped Hyades cluster, which forms the face of Taurus, the bull. The bull’s orange eye is Aldebaran, which is separate from the Hyades.

In the morning sky, Venus is sailing into the sun’s foreglow. About 40 minutes before sunrise on the 7th, sharp-eyed viewers may catch a very low, scrawny moon to the lower right of the planet.

The moon becomes new on the 9th and reaches perigee, its closest point to Earth in this lunar cycle, on the 10th. If you like delicate crescent moons, look close to the setting sun on the 11th and 12th, when the crescent will be big — and maybe pink.

The farthest and smallest full moon of 2024 arrives on the 24th at 6:30 a.m. It sets close to an hour later, so you may want to watch it rise the evening before. It will cross the night sky with Regulus, the brightest star in the spring constellation Leo, the lion.

On Groundhog Day we celebrate the ancient Celtic holiday Imbolc, or lamb’s milk. It was one of four “cross-quarter” days falling midway between a solstice and an equinox. The groundhog’s origins are unclear, but apparently it was believed that a cloudy day foretold rains that would soften the earth for planting, but a clear sky meant more wintry cold.   

The University of Minnesota offers public viewings of the night sky at its Duluth and Twin Cities campuses. For more information, see:

• Duluth, Marshall W. Alworth Planetarium: www.d.umn.edu/planet

• Twin Cities, Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics: www.astro.umn.edu/outreach/pubnight

• Check out astronomy programs, free telescope events, and planetarium shows at the

• University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum: www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/astronomy

•Find U of M astronomers and links to the world of astronomy at: http://www.astro.umn.edu