Special to CosmicTribune.com, February 9, 2026

Excerpts from weekly Astronomy.com report.

Sunday, February 8
Last night, Ganymede passed behind Jupiter in an occultation. Tonight, the smaller moon Europa passes in front of Jupiter in a transit, bringing with it its dark shadow, visible on the cloud tops.

The transit begins shortly before 10 P.M. EST, with Jupiter still high in the sky. Once again, look for the bright gas giant (magnitude –2.6) hanging below Castor and Pollux in Gemini the Twins. Zoom in with a telescope before the event begins and, like last night, you’ll see three moons on one side of the planet and one on the other. Now it’s Io alone on the western side, with Europa closing in on the east. Ganymede lies farther east, and Callisto beyond it.

Europa finally moves in front of the disk at 9:54 P.M. EST. It takes nearly an hour and a half for its shadow to follow, appearing around 11:20 P.M. EST. By then Europa is roughly halfway across the disk. An hour later, both Europa and its shadow are clearly visible, straddling the central meridian with Europa approaching the western limb and the shadow now well separated from the eastern limb. Europa’s transit ends around 12:45 A.M. EST (now the 9th in the Eastern time zone only), and its shadow again follows suit almost an hour and a half later, disappearing shortly before 1:15 A.M. EST (now the 9th for the eastern half of the U.S.).

The time between moons and their shadows crossing has been increasing since Jupiter’s opposition last month and will continue to do so as we move farther from that date.

Sunrise: 7:01 A.M.
Sunset: 5:28 P.M.
Moonrise: —
Moonset: 10:02 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (54%)

Monday, February 9
Last Quarter Moon occurs at 7:43 A.M. EST. This phase is best viewed in the early-morning hours; early risers can catch it before dawn, and our satellite remains visible in the sky even after the Sun has risen.

An hour before dawn this morning, the Moon floats high in the south, amid the stars of Libra and to the right of the claws of Scorpius. (We’ll return here tomorrow morning as well, as the Moon moves into Scorpius in preparation for a close pass of the bright star Antares tomorrow night.)

The Last Quarter Moon is lovely to view through binoculars or a small scope. Night has reached midway across the nearside, cloaking half in darkness while half remains in sunlight. Still visible this morning in the lunar north just on the sunward side of the terminator dividing night and day are the Apennine Mountains, curving gently along the edge of Mare Imbrium (the Sea of Rains). Just below Imbrium is a bright, round crater with a large, tangled set of rays stretching outward in all directions like a cartoon Sun. This is Copernicus, some 58 miles (93 kilometers) across and less than a billion years old. Those rays reach outward some 500 miles (800 km) across the surrounding terrain, visible because they are the lighter material from beneath the surface excavated during the impact that formed the crater.

Sunrise: 7:00 A.M.
Sunset: 5:29 P.M.
Moonrise: 12:58 A.M.
Moonset: 10:30 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (44%)

Tuesday, February 10
Let’s return to the early-morning sky an hour before dawn to check on the Moon’s progress. Now in Scorpius, our waning satellite is close to the 3rd-magnitude star Pi (π) Scorpii and less than 8° from Antares, the Scorpion’s bright red heart. The Moon will pass 0.7° south of Antares late tonight at 11 P.M. EST, when both are below the horizon.

While your gaze is on this region of the sky this morning, point your telescope over to Antares itself. Just 0.6° northwest of this magnitude 1.1 star is the globular cluster NGC 6144. Both are visible together at low powers, but Antares is so much brighter than the cluster that NGC 6144 itself can be better seen by zooming in on this object alone. You can simply adjust the view so Antares falls out of your field, or switch to higher magnification or a larger scope. NGC 6144 is nearly 30,000 light-years away. Spanning just under 10’, its center is tightly packed and difficult to resolve in smaller scopes, but you may be able to pick out member stars around its outer edges.

The Moon reaches apogee, the farthest point from Earth in its orbit, at 11:52 A.M. EST. At that time, our satellite will be 251,392 miles (404,576 km) away.

Sunrise: 6:59 A.M.
Sunset: 5:30 P.M.
Moonrise: 2:00 A.M.
Moonset: 11:05 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (35%)

Io and its shadow transit overnight on February 11/12; both are visible on the disk shortly after midnight in the Central time zone (after 1 A.M. on the 12th in the Eastern time zone). / Alison Klesman (via TheSkyX)

Wednesday, February 11
Observers in the eastern half of the U.S. can catch the large blot of Ganymede’s shadow sliding across the cloud tops of Jupiter as darkness falls this evening. The shadow is already transiting at sunset in the Eastern and Central time zones, with Ganymede itself just west of Jupiter, having recently completed its own transit.

Ganymede’s shadow disappears just after 8:15 P.M. EST, but the jovian show isn’t over yet. East of Jupiter, Io is visible closest to the planet; Callisto is visible just to Io’s east, with Europa farther east of them both. Over the next few hours, as Ganymede moves farther west, away from Jupiter, the other three moons are also moving west, closer to the planet.

Io finally reaches the limb and begins a transit at 12:06 a.m. EST (the 12th in EST only), followed by its shadow roughly 50 minutes later. By 1:30 A.M. EST (now the 12th for the Eastern and Central time zones), both are readily visible in front of the planet, moving from east to west. Io ends its transit just before 2:25 A.M. EST, with its shadow continuing until about 3:10 A.M. EST.

Sunrise: 6:58 A.M.
Sunset: 5:32 P.M.
Moonrise: 3:01 A.M.
Moonset: 11:48 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (26%)

Nysa tracks past several field stars in Cancer and Gemini this month, located near Mu^2 Cancri (labeled simply μ in the chart above). / Astronomy: Roen Kelly

Thursday, February 12
Asteroid 44 Nysa may be just past opposition, but it’s still placed perfectly for evening viewing in Cancer the Crab. Wait until a few hours after sunset, when Cancer is high in the eastern sky, and swing your telescope over to its western reaches, near the Crab’s border with Gemini the Twins. Ninth-magnitude Nysa is 3.3° northwest of Zeta (ζ) Cancri, also called Tegmine, a magnitude 4.6 multiple star system that can be easily split into two with a telescope.

Nysa is particularly close to a 7th-magnitude field star, which tonight lies only about 8’ northwest of the main-belt world. You can use this star as a signpost to watch Nysa’s motion over the next few nights. Spanning about 70 miles (113 km) along its longest axis, this oblong space rock is one of the brightest asteroids in our sky right now, currently only fainter than 4 Vesta and even outshining 1 Ceres at the moment, thanks to the difference in their distances from Earth as we all orbit the Sun.

Sunrise: 6:56 A.M.
Sunset: 5:33 P.M.
Moonrise: 3:57 A.M.
Moonset: 12:37 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (18%)

Bright Mercury passes close to the star Lambda (λ) Aquarii shortly after sunset on February 13. Credit: Stellarium

Friday, February 13
Mercury passes close to the star Lambda (λ) Aquarii in the evening sky tonight, visible for a short time after sunset.

Half an hour after the Sun goes down, bright Venus blazes at magnitude –3.9 just above the western horizon. About 7.5° above it, Mercury also shines brightly, though it is three full magnitudes fainter, at magnitude –0.9. After Venus, it should be the next point of light you see appear in the darkening sky.

Wait another half hour, and although Venus has disappeared, you might now catch Lambda Aqr, shining at magnitude 3.7 just ¼° southeast (to the upper left) of Mercury. They’re easy to catch together in the same field of view of any optics. Sometimes called Hydor (though this name is not officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union), Lambda Aqr is located nearly on the ecliptic, the plane of the solar system and the line in the sky along which the planets appear. This aging star is roughly 100 times the width of the Sun and has about three times our star’s mass.

Through a telescope, you’ll see that Mercury’s 6”-wide disk shows off a gibbous phase, now 73 percent lit. Compare that to Venus (which you’ll have to observe first, as it sets shortly after 6 P.M. local time), which is 10” wide and virtually full at 99 percent lit.

About 18° above Mercury is 1st-magnitude Saturn. A line drawn between these two planets shows the rough location of the ecliptic; we’ll use these planets and the ecliptic as guides next week to observe the zodiacal light, so stay tuned!

Sunrise: 6:55 A.M.
Sunset: 5:34 P.M.
Moonrise: 4:46 A.M.
Moonset: 1:36 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (11%)