CATEGORIES

Mercury returns to twilight

The inner wanderer graces our evening skies once again this month.

JUICE TAKES FLIGHT

Set to launch this month, the European-led JUICE spacecraft will explore the frozen worlds orbiting the gas giant Jupiter.

Astronomy Photographer of the Year

Supported by Liberty Specialty Markets, The world-class competition returns in 2023, seeking the best astronomy image of the past year

O&A WITH A PLANETARY SCIENTIST

The materials that form the building blocks of life on Earth have been found in distant planet-forming discs that are the same size as the Solar System

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY PROCESSING

Reduce star trailing in your astro images, An easy processing tip to remedy stretched and unsharp stars

Bring out the colours of stars

From reds to yellows to blues, here's how to reveal the subtle tones of stars in your images

Build a zero-magnification finder

Make an illuminated aiming device you can use on any telescope

The Columbia Space Shuttle disaster

Twenty years on, Amy Arthur looks back at fateful flight STS-107

The man who put the Sun at the CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE

This month marks 550 years since the birth of Nicolaus Copernicus. Emily Winterburn explores his life and legacy

OBSERVING VARIABLE STARS

Pete Lawrence is your guide to viewing variable stars so you can record their changes in brightness

Expansion and gravity

Though the Universe is expanding, gravity helps keep it together

Does the Universe expand faster than light?

Govert Schilling continues to explain cosmology's confusing concepts In part 2 of our series

DEEP-SKY TOUR

We'll start in Orion's Sword where M42, the Orion Nebula, takes pride of place. Magnificent through any instrument, smaller scopes give a lovely overview of this fourth-magnitude nebula, easily revealing the bright kidney-shaped 'core' within which the tightly packed stars of the Trapezium Cluster are embedded.

THE SKY GUIDE CHALLENGE

Can you beat Sirius's glare to identify its faint companion the Pup Star?

BINOCULAR TOUR With Steve Tonkin

This month we're off to a dog show, finding the best in class in Canis Major

STAR OF THE MONTH

Muscida, the nose of the Great Bear, Ursa Major

COMETS AND ASTEROIDS

Fingers crossed for comet C/2022 E3 ZTF reaching naked-eye visibility this month

Fra Mauro

Fra Mauro is a quintessential example of a walled plain. Measuring 96km in diameter and 800m in depth, its ancient form can be located east of 300km Mare Cognitum, the sea that has become known’.

Jupiter

Jupiter is rapidly losing ground to the evening twilight, appearing 29° above the southwest horizon under deep twilight conditions at the start of the month, but reaching only 12° above the western horizon by the time we reach the end of the month.

Favourable southwest lunar libration

BEST TIME TO SEE: 9-16 February

Venusian encounters

BEST TIME TO SEE: From 15 February, after sunset

Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF

BEST TIME TO SEE: 8-23 February

Chelyabinsk 10 years on

In 2013 Ezzy Pearson visited the site of a massive meteor explosion. A decade later she looks back at what we learned from the event

First date with a DSLR

Taking nightscapes and Star trails with a DSLR camera Is a great way to get started In astrophotography. Stuart Atkinson gives his best tips for beginners

FIELD OF VIEW

When the cosmos changes history, Jonathan Powell tracks celestial events that have altered world affairs

CBeebies Stargazing

There is no episode of The Sky at Night in February, but there is a wealth of astronomy and stargazing content on the BBC iPlayer that's suitable for children and young astronomers.

Looking back: The Sky at Night

18 February 1976,

INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT

In The Sky at Night's last episode of 2022, Douglas Vakoch looked into how humanity could reach out and contact other worlds

Expansion leads to increased tension

JWST observations seem to confirm cosmology's biggest conundrum

JWST reveals active exoplanet atmospheres

The telescope has found evidence of atmospheric reactions above an exoplanet