February 2025 Note​s

★  About 90 minutes after Sunset ★

Planets
Every 26 months, like clockwork, the Earth and Mars are close together and this is that time! Mars was closest to Earth on January 15/16 making it very bright which is still the case at this time. Yes, it does have a reddish cast to its color to help identify it. And because it is a planet, it does not twinkle like the stars. You need about 200x in a telescope to see any detail on its surface (the North Polar Cap is visible) and a non-turbulent sky, otherwise it will appear blurry.

Constellations
Due south and about halfway up is Orion. Orion is one of the few constellations that is composed of many bright stars—it’s an easy constellation to identify, to bite your teeth into if you have never found a constellation. The three almost equal magnitude and equal distant belt stars form a line and are thus unique in the sky. They roughly point downward to Sirius which is the brightest star in the whole sky—both hemispheres. But Jupiter and Venus are always brighter than Sirius.