Looking Up in February (+march)

Look up for upcoming space phenomenons and launches! Here’s a list of some noteworthy space launches and phenomena in the night sky. 

February 16 - Venus will be the brightest “star” in the sky tonight! It will be easily visible and awesome to look at. Venus is usually pretty easy to find; just look for the brightest dot in the sky around dusk or dawn. (FYI, Venus is called the “evening star,” and this is the reason!)

February 26 or later - There will be a launch of the CLPS IM-2 (Intuitive Machines’ second flight). This flight will land on the moon near the lunar South Pole and is part of the greater Artemis* mission. Its job is to determine how much volatile subsurface material is in the area.

February 27 or later - There will be a launch of the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx - this is not my abbreviation, by the way; NASA’s just crazy specific). The SPHEREx will spend two years collecting data on over 450 million galaxies and 100 million individual stars in the Milky Way.

February 28 - The (almost) monthly new moon makes its appearance on the 28th of the month! This isn’t super rare, but you’ll have a better view of the stars. Both Venus and Jupiter should also be pretty easily visible this night too.

Mercury and the Sun

March 8 - Mercury will be at its farthest from the sun, making it more easily visible. This happens about every four months. The best time to see it on the 8th will be in the evening, probably around dusk!

March 14 - The first total lunar eclipse of 2025 has arrived! It may not be the best visibility, but that’s kind of the point, right? (Yes, I know, I’m hilarious. You can laugh.) In all seriousness, it should be pretty visible from the entire US.

Thanks for listening to me ramble! I love space and geeking, so hopefully you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it! Happy star/planet/launch gazing    -Livvy Church

*The Artemis mission is NASA’s mission to get people on the moon again, which hasn’t happened since Apollo 17 (12/19/72 - over 52 years ago!).

Information was found at: https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/sights-to-see.html

 And https://www.nasa.gov/events/ (especially check this site out, it’s awesome)